BEIRUT // Lebanon is acting in a “blatantly discriminatory” manner by denying access to Palestinians fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Syria, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.
The watchdog said Lebanon has imposed increasingly onerous entry requirements at the border with Syria and that there was evidence it is trying to prevent Palestinian refugees from entering via Beirut airport.
“The Lebanese government’s policies and practices towards Palestinian refugees from Syria have led to a range of serious human rights violations,” said the human rights group.
“The policies – which treat Palestinian refugees from Syria differently to other refugees – are also blatantly discriminatory,” it added.
Lebanon is hosting more than one million refugees from Syria, or about a quarter of its population.
Amnesty acknowledged that hosting the refugees puts Lebanon under “immense strain” and criticised the international community for failing to provide more support.
But, it said, there was “no justification” for the different treatment of Palestinians from Syria, who also represent a small number of the total population that has fled the Syrian conflict.
The group said Palestinians seeking to cross the border from Syria were required to meet one of several criteria that were “extremely difficult and costly”.
And the report documented instances in which Palestinians said they met the criteria laid out, including a residency permit and proof of relatives living legally in Lebanon, but were still denied entry.
In one instance, a woman who had returned to Syria to give birth was denied the right to return to her family staying in Lebanon.
In another, the parents of a 12-year-old returned to Syria to renew their identity documents, leaving their son in Lebanon with his uncle, but were subsequently denied reentry.
* Agence France-Press