‘If they see a Syrian, they beat them up’: the refugees living in fear in Lebanon

Mustafa* was walking home from work last month when he was attacked. He had lived in the neighbourhood – an attractive, predominantly Christian town a few miles from Beirut – since 2010. In an apparently unprovoked assault, a gang of more than a dozen men beat him up, broke one of his ribs, and left him bleeding by the side of the road.

It is one of numerous reports that have emerged in recent weeks of vigilante groups across Lebanon attacking Syrians. After the abduction and killing of a senior official in the Lebanese Forces, a rightwing Christian political party, rights groups have recorded a spike in attacks and rhetoric aimed at Syrians living in the country.

Politicians have called for calm and publicly denounced the violence, although many have also taken the opportunity to voice support for restrictions on the movement and freedoms of Syrians and their deportation. An anonymous analyst for Synaps, a Beirut research centre, says April was the most dangerous month for Syrians living in Lebanon since they first arrived in large numbers after the outbreak of civil war in 2011.

The flashpoint came when Pascal Sleiman was run off the road and abducted near Byblos on 7 April. The motives for his killing remain unclear, but Lebanese Forces considers it “a political assassination” and has insinuated involvement by its longstanding adversary, Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, a powerful Shia militia and political force, has denied responsibility. It is clashing with Israel daily along the southern Lebanon-Israeli border, in response to Israel’s war on Gaza, a further source of tension for people in Lebanon.

Related: ‘Everyone knows something’s going to happen’: fears of a new war on Israel’s border with Lebanon

State authorities have played down any political motive, instead suggesting that Sleiman’s death was the result of a carjacking. The day after his abduction, they announced that his body had been discovered near Homs in Syria and that seven Syrian men had been arrested.

The announcement unleashed a wave of violence against Syrian refugees. “There were groups of guys roaming the streets,” says Karim, Mustafa’s stepbrother, who lives in the same area. “If they saw anyone who was Syrian, they would beat him up.”

For five days after he was attacked, Mustafa recuperated in bed, too afraid to go to a hospital. Karim says he chose to stay at home too, fearing he might also be attacked.

Since the announcement of Sleiman’s killing, videos have appeared on social media showing Syrians being attacked in the street. Posts on social media have been widely shared, describing people being attacked by dogs, and there have been reports of Syrians being ordered to leave Christian-majority areas.

Karim’s and Mustafa’s position in Lebanon is precarious. According to the UNHCR, only 5% of Syrian households are food secure while in 69% of households not a single member has legal residency.

“Life in Lebanon is hard”, says Karim, “but it’s impossible to return to Syria. My whole family is wanted. As soon as I cross the border, they’ll kill me.”

Karim is among more than 800,000 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The government suspended registrations in 2015 and estimates of the actual number of Syrians in the country range from 1 million to more than 2 million. Karim relies on his $300-a-month salary as a delivery driver and $75 monthly stipend from the UNHCR to support his wife and six children.

Omar is a Syrian who has lived in the northern city of Tripoli since 2012. “I’ve thought a lot about getting a boat across the Mediterranean,” he says. “But six days at sea? There are so many ways you could die.”

Omar earns $10 a day doing menial work and says that life in Lebanon has always been tough, but that things have become worse. While Lebanese people used to show great hospitality and welcome Syrians, he says, he has begun to feel that there is a “racist campaign” against them, through comments made by politicians, anti-Syrian TV adverts, and a large increase in deportations to Syria.

According to the UNHCR, at least 13,772 individuals were deported from Lebanon or pushed back across the border to Syria in 2023.

Human Rights Watch has recorded incidents of arbitrary detention, torture and forced deportation during the first four months of this year.

“If there are checkpoints outside, I don’t leave the house,” says Karim. He is in a WhatsApp group with other Syrians who warn each other when a new checkpoint pops up. “I haven’t been to Beirut in like three years out of fear,” he says.

In the wake of the violence, political leaders have urged calm and denounced the attacks. At the same time, many high-profile politicians have also advocated for more repressive laws targeted at Syrians and called on them to leave the country.

A week after Suleiman’s abduction, the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, announced that “most” Syrians would be returned to safe zones in Syria, saying: “Nothing unites the Lebanese today more than the issue of displaced Syrians.” In separate comments, the interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, called for the number of Syrians in the country to be limited, while the foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told reporters in Greece two days after the kidnapping that the “crisis of Syrian migrants has spiralled out of control”.

According to Ramzi Kaiss, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, “Lebanese authorities are unserious about any solution to the Syrian refugee crisis”. Instead of proposing a plan based on due process and Lebanese law, Kaiss says that government proposals amount to “summary deportations” that infringe the law. He accuses the authorities of “abject scapegoating that distracts away from the responsibilities of the authorities towards the people of Lebanon”.

The country is now in its fourth year of economic crisis and its 18th month without a president, while conflict between Hezbollah and Israeli forces continues to rage on its southern border.

The interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment. But the head of foreign affairs for the Lebanese Forces, Richard Kouyoumjian, says the Syrian issue is “top of our priorities”. He says Lebanese Forces members did not take part in the violence of the past few weeks, which he describes as “the actions of some zealous people”.

“We did a lot to calm down the emotions of our members,” he says, but reports that tempers among the group’s supporters are fraying.

“We cannot bear this burden any more,” he says. “It is not about the economy, it’s about our identity. Once 50% of our population are immigrants, you’re gone. I’m sorry, but we’re not going to accept that. We’re not ready to lose our country.”

* Name has been changed