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Displaced Syrians target of new Lebanon law

A recent law to revoke the displaced status of Syrian refugees if they return to Syria was meant to prevent Syrians from voting in the June 3 elections.
A Syrian refugee points at his make-shift home in Tfail village in Bekaa Valley after fleeing the violence in Syria, April 22, 2014.  The only accessible road to the Lebanese border village of Tfail, cut off by Syrian regime troops as part of the regime's offensive to root out rebels in the Qalamoun region, was reopened on Tuesday by the Lebanese Army. REUTERS/Ahmad Shalha (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3M9R6
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On May 31, Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk issued a decision to revoke the “displaced” status of all Syrian citizens registered as such in Lebanon if they return to the Syrian territories, effective June 1. This decision seems rational if one ignores the known political alignments of the region. However, in light of the divisions among Lebanese over the war in Syria, it seems that this decision has other, more complicated dimensions, which will likely deteriorate the situation of displaced Syrians in Lebanon.

The decision affects the nearly 1.1 million Syrian citizens registered as refugees on the lists of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beirut. Losing the displaced status will deprive Syrians in Lebanon of UNHCR aid. According to official sources who spoke to Al-Monitor, 600,000 people, more than 80% of them Syrians, have been crossing the border between Syria and Lebanon per month. The same sources estimated that a large part of these Syrians who cross the border regularly are registered as refugees in Lebanon.

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