A media campaign against the prolonged presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has sparked an uproar as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis in history.
A controversy is ongoing in Lebanon after ads and billboards in cities across the country publicized a controversial campaign against the substantial and prolonged presence of Syrian refugees in the country which is struggling to cope with a five-year-long economic crisis, the worst in its history.
Media in the capital Beirut reported that Lebanese television Mtv and the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Industry of Lebanon have been criticized for respectively broadcasting and sponsoring ads "stoking hatred" towards Syrian refugees in the country.
Also read: Lebanon plans to send 15,000 Syrians back home each month
NGO World House of Lebanon behind campaign
Since the beginning of armed violence in Syria in 2011, over one million Syrian civilians have fled to Lebanon, a country that has not signed the Geneva Convention on refugees and which has de facto never organized in a systematic and dignified way the hosting of a growing number of Syrians.
The campaign is called 'Undo the damage', followed by the sentence "before it is too late". The ads state that "Syrians represent 40% of the Lebanese population … while the other half are Lebanese attempting to migrate".
Behind the campaign is the self-styled Lebanese NGO World House of Lebanon, which operates abroad and is connected to many Lebanese communities worldwide.
Betty Hindi, a leading member of the organization, said during a recent television interview that Lebanese authorities need to be urged to "register Syrian refugees in Lebanon".
This request was also stressed by a few members of the outgoing Lebanese cabinet, but no progress has so far been made in this direction.
Also read: Lebanon under scrutiny for deporting Syrian refugees
The dossier of Syrian refugees and Lebanon's worst financial crisis
The dossier on Syrian refugees in Lebanon is managed by Lebanese authorities together with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, which has so far registered approximately 800,000 refugees.
For the past two years, Lebanese authorities have announced a campaign aimed at driving as many Syrians as possible to "voluntarily return to Syria".
Periodically, Lebanese security agencies have announced the repatriation of "a few hundred Syrians", while the Lebanese army has issued statements claiming it stopped Syrians attempting to cross the porous border between the two countries.
In this context, the campaign on Mtv is touching a nerve in the long-suffering Lebanese and Syrian communities in Lebanon. In one of the videos broadcast by the television channel, a Syrian man can be heard saying that he shares several children with a young woman, who is pregnant again. The video shows in the background an unspecified refugee camp and displaced children and women living in precarious conditions.
Since 2019, Lebanon has registered its worst financial crisis in history. And the economic collapse has intensified social tensions between the vulnerable refugee community and low-income and middle-class Lebanese who are increasingly impoverished.
"I was born in Syria," says the voice of a child in another commercial broadcast by Mtv. "They say that in a few years I will become Lebanese," the child's voice adds before another child interrupts him and says at the end of the video: "No, we are Syrians and Syria needs us. We need to return to Syria."
Author: Lorenzo Trombetta