Lebanon’s economic crisis persists, as does the “fear” of refugees in the EU | Migration news

Lebanon and the Lebanese people are still suffering from a debilitating economic crisis that has plagued the country since 2019.

The pound has fallen to less than 10% of its pre-crisis value, savings have disappeared both in terms of exchange rates and real deposits, as banks announce they have no money to release, and more and more people worry. if in simply staying alive.

About 80 percent of the population is below the poverty line and 36 percent is below the “extreme poverty line,” living on less than $2.15 a day.

A recent €1 billion ($1.06 billion) deal with the European Union may have been seen as a godsend in such circumstances, but it has brought to light even more problems.

‘Shameful’

EU grants over the past three years are not just intended to help Lebanon’s economy.

On the contrary, they are mainly intended to “guarantee the well-being of host communities and Syrian refugees”, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. Almost three-quarters of the package is intended for this, in the hope that refugees will be deterred from heading to Europe.

Lebanon has welcomed millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country’s 13-year war.

As more Lebanese people saw their lives devastated by the economic crisis, hostility toward refugees increased, encouraged by a public campaign supported by major Lebanese media and state figures.

The EU package was heavily criticized by workers and human rights analysts, who said the deal rewards the state’s financial mismanagement and mistreatment of the Syrian community.

More than 300 Syrians have returned – or been returned – to their country of origin, in what Lebanese authorities call a “voluntary return” program.

But human rights groups have criticized the initiative, which comes in the wake of 13,000 forced deportations of Syrians in 2023 alone, violence against refugees in Lebanon and the ongoing conflict in Syria itself.

“Human Rights Watch documented the summary deportation of thousands of Syrians in 2023 and [the] deportation of opposition activists and army deserters this year,” Ramzi Kaiss, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division of the right group, told Al Jazeera.

“Among these documented deportations were Syrians who attempted to flee Lebanon by sea and were returned to Lebanon by the Lebanese armed forces and subsequently deported.

“The fact that the EU provides funds to encourage this behavior is shameful.”

‘Asking people to starve to death’

Another persistent issue in Lebanon makes assistance of little use.

“The biggest problem is the complete lack of accountability,” Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “Even the Lebanese finance minister acknowledged that local corruption could be a major [issue].”

The country’s poor do not benefit from the money that enters the country, being left to fend for themselves.

“In this country, we live off the blessing of Almighty God… and people help each other,” Abu Omar, a clothing store owner in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest and poorest city, told Al Jazeera .

“Everything is very expensive and the economic situation is very bad. There is no money, there is very little work and a lot of taxes.”

Lebanon’s Parliament approved a new budget in January aimed at reducing its significant deficit, which the World Bank says is 12.8 percent of its gross domestic product.

The new budget increased value-added tax and cut progressive taxes on things like capital gains, real estate and investments – hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest, according to economists.

“With this type of strategy to reduce the deficit, people are unable to meet the basic needs of health, food, shelter and education,” Farah Al Shami, leader of the social protection program at the Arab Reform Initiative, told Al Jazeera.

“They are just asking people to starve and starve.”

‘Nothing new under the sun’

International financial institutions such as the World Bank have been pressing Lebanon’s leaders to introduce reforms to increase “transparency, inclusion and accountability” as a condition for releasing aid packages.

The International Monetary Fund has been waiting for a badly needed $3 billion package that would, in theory, help many nearly bankrupt and paralyzed state institutions get back up and running.

Lebanon’s political elite has avoided implementing reforms, worried that transparency could reveal corruption among leaders focused on protecting their corporate monopolies, according to Leila Dagher and Sumru Altug, writing for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

The alternative, according to some observers, has been to wait and hope that the international community will eventually feel that it is to its advantage to support even a deficient government structure, as long as it helps to contain some refugees.

The EU has given Lebanon more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) since 2011, half of which went to help with the fallout from the war in Syria – money that was supposed to help refugees become self-reliant. enough and help the Lebanese host community.

Another 860 million euros ($934 million) was earmarked for humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable in Lebanon, including refugees and the poor.

Expectations that the EU’s latest package will have a different impact this time are unrealistic, analysts said.

“There is nothing new under the sun [in this deal]”, according to Bitar.

Politics replaces everything

It is assumed that much of the money provided by foreign governments and international organizations to Lebanon since 2011 has reached the pockets of corrupt bankers, businessmen and politicians.

But this has not stopped the EU from reaching out to the Lebanese ruling class and giving priority to its political considerations.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has been coordinating with interim Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the issue of migration, as the economy and local hostility push more Syrians and Lebanese to attempt the sea crossing to Europe.

Von der Leyen, who recently announced her candidacy for re-election, was the smiling face of the latest aid package alongside Mikati and Christodoulides.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing positive we can expect from her,” Bitar said, “neither in the Lebanese dossier nor in the Syrian refugee file.”

During her tenure as president of the European Commission, von der Leyen focused heavily on migration, securing agreements with North African countries to reduce refugee flows into Europe, despite strong criticism from human rights groups and some EU Member States.

“This is just the latest in a series of bad migration deals with Turkey, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, so it is following a trend in Europe of really abdicating responsibilities towards migrants and refugees,” said Adriana Tidona, European migration researcher at Amnesty International. she told Al Jazeera.

“Europe risks becoming complicit in very serious human rights violations.”