On New Year’s Eve, a small boat carrying more than 230 would-be migrants, most of them Syrians, broke down and began to sink after setting sail from the northern coast of Lebanon. After bringing them back to shore, to the port of Tripoli, where they recovered overnight, the Lebanese army loaded nearly 200 rescued Syrians into trucks and dropped them on the Syrian side of an unofficial border crossing in Wadi Khaled, a remote area of northeastern Lebanon, some of the survivors and human rights monitors said.
It remained unclear who had ordered the deportation but the incident marked an apparent escalation in the Lebanese army’s deportations of Syrians at a time of heightened anti-refugee rhetoric in the small, crisis-ridden nation. Human rights monitors say the case of the boat survivors is a troubling new twist in Lebanon’s ongoing push for Syrian refugees to go home.
Lisa Abou Khaled, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency in Lebanon, said UNHCR was “following up with the relevant authorities” on the case. “All individuals who are rescued at sea and who may have a fear of (returning) to their country of origin should have the opportunity to seek protection,” she said.
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