HRW Says Palestinians Fleeing Syria Stranded at Lebanon Border

Most Palestinians trying to go to Lebanon from strife-torn Syria have been denied entry over the past two days, a rights group said on Thursday.

"The Lebanese government began on August 6, 2013, to bar Palestinians from entering the country from Syria," New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

"Refusing to allow asylum seekers to enter the country violates Lebanon's international obligations."

An HRW statement said people stranded at the border included "entire families, children, the elderly and the sick."

It said Lebanese authorities "should urgently rescind its decision to bar Palestinians from Syria from entering Lebanon... Lebanon is turning people back without adequately considering the dangers they face."

From August 6, it appears "the only Palestinians allowed to enter Lebanon were Palestinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day," HRW said.

It said there has been no public announcement of a change in policy.

HRW said that under international law Lebanon must abide by the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are threatened.

Syria is home to some 500,000 Palestinians. Many lived in Yarmouk in southern Damascus, a district that has been torn apart by shelling, rendering much of it uninhabitable, residents say.

A source in the General Security directorate told Agence France Presse that "so far we have been the country with the most open border policy for people traveling from Syria."

Lebanon had been granting Palestinians coming from Syria a seven-day renewable visa.

"We dealt with the Palestinian situation from a humanitarian point of view," said the source, adding that Lebanon "is not a country of asylum."

"They should not be coming here. Their files are with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Syria, not in Lebanon," he said of the agency tasked with registering and aiding those whose ascendants fled historic Palestine.

The source also said Lebanon "has been promised help by the international community to deal with the influx. That help didn't come."

Some 675,000 people fleeing Syria's conflict – among them 60,000 Palestinians -- have sought shelter in Lebanon, the U.N. says, though the real number is believed to be much higher.

U.N. and other humanitarian agencies say there has been a major funding shortfall to help mitigate the impact of the refugee crisis.

"While the Lebanese government, like those of other neighboring countries, is struggling to meet the needs of the growing refugee population, closing the border is no answer," said HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork.

On July 26, the U.N. refugee agency said it is negotiating with Lebanon over the country's plan to enforce new border controls that could affect the flow of Syrian refugees.

"We will continue to engage with (the authorities) to ensure that refugees in need of protection will have access to Lebanon but also that the legitimate security concerns of the government are respected and observed," said Ninette Kelley, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Beirut.

Her statement came three days after the government announced new entry controls. Several ministers insisted that the new rules would not close the border to refugees fleeing Syria.

But they said that in the future they would recognize as refugees only those fleeing parts of Syria that have been wracked by violence.

"In order not to allow people with terrorist ties or other security problems to take advantage of the humanitarian situation, we are now being stricter and ensuring that only people with a valid ID or passport are allowed in," a General Security source told AFP in the wake of the decision.

The U.N. Development Program's Luca Renda has also warned of a range of problems in communities in Lebanon that are hosting refugees.

"Competition for jobs, crowding of services, scarcity of drinking water, pressure on waste collection, issues of sanitation (and) increasing tensions between communities," he said.