A fire on December 27, 2020, ripped tented shelters apart in Bhanine, Northern Lebanon. Nearly 75 families reside there. UNHCR reported that more than 370 refugees in the camp were forced to leave after, and at least four residents were injured. The reason behind the fire is that six Syrian employees living in this camp demanded their rightful wage which the Lebanese employers refused to give. As a way of revenge, the Lebanese employers set a fire on the Syrian workers' camp out of "anger". The National News Agency claimed the “altercation” was between Syrian workers and a Lebanese family.¹ Eventually, six Syrian workers and two Lebanese people were arrested. The investigation is ongoing. Until now, no one of who set the fire was legally sentenced even though their identities are known.²
The discrimination in Lebanon is an accepted way of life, it does not limit to various communities, color, race, religion, and nationality.³ For example, Shufaa Hume, from Tanzania, chose Lebanon to study since she thought she will be more accepted in the Middle East than in the US. Hume was chased in the streets and she was offered money to have sex with a man. She was not accepted in the hospital, where a patient refused to share a room with her. She was not accepted by her roommate, who set strict rules on her on what she agrees her to do. No one dared to sit next to her in class. She tried talking to the university she is attending about her being racially profiled, they told her she is being "too sensitive" and that outside the campus of American University of Beirut is much worse.⁴
Discrimination is overgrowing in Lebanon, especially towards refugees. Refugee migration of Syrians leads to increased diversity in Lebanon and these refugees have to face stereotyped attitudes in the host country. Discriminatory behaviors, attitudes, and languages of Lebanese citizens against Syrian refugees in Lebanon are reflective to the government's scapegoating discourse. For instance, on the day of August 24, 2020, after few days of Beirut's explosion, the owner of the popular Café Em Nazih and five of their workers were arrested while cleaning the mess that happened from the explosion. The Café was in pieces. It was broken down into dust. The daughter of the owner opened live on Facebook to show the world that the Internal Security Forces are asking for the nationalities of the employees while cleaning the destructions. They were pulling the owner's broken arm after refusing to give them his employees' ID's, saying that they should focus on the damage and destructions of Beirut's explosion instead of focusing on checking the nationalities of people. The Internal Security Forces posted that they were only arrested because they were at risk and refused to collaborate, meanwhile the live post on Facebook says the complete opposite. Most opinions on the post say that it was definitely a bad timing to check the documentations of migrants and refugees. This behavior is not a new phenomenon in Lebanon.⁵
Syrian refugees have been blamed for the economic, social and security crises in the country by Lebanon’s leading political forces and elites. These talks created a xenophobic popular culture against Syrians among individuals and group gatherings. Syrian refugees are now the first to blame by the political parties whenever a small thing happen.⁶
Nearly three years ago, President of Lebanon General Michael Aoun stated that “The wave of Syrian displacement has produced negative repercussions that has impacted all Lebanese sectors.” He continued “Lebanon, which has provided all the humanitarian and logistical facilities for refugees during the Syrian war, believes that Syrian territory except for Idlib (province) and its surrounding area, is now stable, making it easier for refugees to return."⁷ Lebanon’s former minister of foreign affair and emigrants, and General Michael Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, requested the UK to reconsider their act on spending money to keep 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, since they are stealing the Lebanese citizens’ jobs and diminishing wages.⁸
Economic:
The scapegoating discourse does not come from a natural attitudes of Lebanese people towards discrimination. But, it indicates a big crisis the Lebanese government has been facing since 2005. It shows how the Lebanese authorities and government are unable to manage the Syrian refugees during the economic crisis Lebanon is facing. The Lebanese state is still trying to escape the pressure of being blamed for the economic crisis by blaming the Syrian refugees in return and demanding for their return to their country. Anger of Lebanese citizens is shifted to Syrian refugees instead of the government.
Lebanon is undergoing a deep economic crisis after consecutive governments piled up debts after the civil war 1990. In the face of lack of job opportunities and instability of the situation, skilled Lebanese and youths immigrate to find a better job opportunity or study in better universities. This economic crisis influenced the employment sector negatively. The unemployment rate is increasing, where the government attributed to the existence of Syrian refugees in the country. The unemployment rate increased up to 35%, where approximately 480,000 Lebanese citizens out of one million us unemployed.⁹ These Syrian refugees approved to work with low wages and hard conditions to live with dignity, denying the prestige. Moreover, Syrian families are in urge of money to live even if the parents are working, so child labor is spreading widely.
17 October Revolution started to stop the rising of prices of gasoline, tobacco and calls. As these of protests proceeded, it quickly widened to condemn the stagnation of the economy, unemployment, corruption inside the government, banking secrecy, and failures of the government to provide the basic rights, like electricity, water and sanitation. These protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri. Hassan Diab was elected to take his place, but he also resigned after Beirut's explosion.¹⁰ Lebanese citizens protested to live peacefully on their land. They were fully aware the corruption they were drowned in is because of their political parties and not Syrian refugees, as the political parties claim.
Employment:
Even though Syrians agree to work in agriculture, construction and cleaning services, unlike Lebanese people. They do not own a residence permit, so they are unable to get a labor permit. Thus, they work illegally and for a small wage.¹¹ In addition, Lebanese businesses are greedy. They would employ people who accept to be payed with low wages. Hence, who should we blame? Lebanese business owners who prefer to pay low wages or Syrian employees who accept these wages? Syrian refugees who own a good university degree and a great CV cannot work. The Lebanese government limited their work in cleaning and restaurants’ minor positions, as waiters or waitresses. For example, most of UNRWA schools hire Palestinian refugees born in Lebanon, when I was in middle school, only a Syrian refugee, originally Palestinian, was accepted to teach part-time Arabic subject to students in an UNRWA school, since he had a PhD in Arabic literature. Instead of having a full-time job or teaching higher class of students, he still had to work part-time in Middle School with his PhD. Most Syrians do not get accepted to work as teachers even if they have a strong degree.
Educational:
Lebanon does not take Syrian refugees’ education in consideration. Syrian students were deprived for almost two years of education due to failure by schools to provide them with distance learning. Education Ministry officials said in a meeting that almost 25000 young Syrians who must have enrolled in first grade did not. Many Syrian students cannot attend public schools, it might be because their families cannot afford the cost of transportation, or it might be because these public schools rejected them. Baccalaureate and Brevet tests, the official tests of Lebanon that every student must take to continue their education in university and high school respectively, are not taken by most Syrian refugees since they do not own a legal residency in Lebanon, so they cannot continue their education. ¹²
To solve this issue, humanitarian aid organizations created non-formal schools near Syrian refugees camps. However, the Education Ministry rejected to let them use the normal school curriculum. They only allowed these organizations to teach basic numeracy and literacy. Syrian students must do placement tests to get approved to enter. It is not obliged for other citizens. Syrian students who have not studied in Lebanese public schools must complete a donor-funded special accelerated learning program before entering the public school. But this program is not being offered online since Covid-19, so nearly 6500 Syrian students are left without any education.¹² This phenomenon will leave Syrians in Lebanon without education having to accept to work with low wages. They will not have a degree to work in appropriate environment with a rightful salary.
In my old High School, there were nearly 1000 students; only four of them were Syrians. The principal of this High School accepted all the non-Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian, students first even if they are not qualified to enter, and left the Syrian students at the last regardless of their academic standing. The classes were not full as she claimed. Four classes were fully empty, where they can occupy nearly 120 students tirelessly. Not to mention, the discrimination from the Lebanese teachers towards the Syrian students. For example, my math teacher in eleventh grade stopped my Syrian friend from entering the class even though he was not late. The math teacher let everyone else to enter except him. Once the class was full, he asked for his documentations, saying "I have every right to do it since you are living in my country". The student replied that he does not have the documentations with him, except his ID. The teacher then replied that it is not enough, and made him stand up as a punishment for this. I and other students, then said that it is not okay. He then said that he was messing around and there was nothing serious, after making him stand for 15 minutes for absolute no logical reason.
Social:
The discriminatory acts and attitudes stand on social sides, on the dead Syrians. Families of dead Syrian refugees in Lebanon are struggling to bury their beloved ones. Most of the time, these families leave the dead bodies in hospitals morgues while they are trying to find cemeteries that will accept the body. They usually cannot afford the fees of burying the body and hospital fees, so they carry the body in a card box and dig a hole in the grave with their bare hands. They also cannot afford the cost of burial, performing Islamic rites of cleansing, or shrouds and gravestones.¹³ Many refugees that are unable to locate and/or afford official gravesites for their loved ones tend to bury them in secret at night.¹⁴ Lebanese law does not ban Syrians to not bury their beloved bodies in Lebanese cemeteries, since they are regulated and managed by religious authorities at the municipal level. Each municipality of a town sets the rules, whether a Syrian can be buried in their cemetery or not.¹⁵ This shows that the Lebanese government is ignoring the xenophobic and discriminative acts towards the Syrian refugees. The Lebanese government will not reject the discriminatory acts towards dead Syrians, nor will they accept it. They do not want to be accused for supporting this discriminatory act, yet they want them to suffer, so they do not do anything about it.
In addition, Syrian refugees who work as waiters or waitresses must learn the Lebanese accent, since the Syrian accent is believed to annoy the customers.¹⁶ My friend in High School used to speak in Lebanese accent, so that he can make some friends with no problems and that he would not face any discrimination from his teachers. Everyone knew he was Syrian even if he was trying to hide it. It can be shown that Lebanese people knew a Syrian from his/her style and features. Sometimes they have to lie about their origin or fake it to get a job or to be equal to other students in the school.
The discrimination in Lebanon is an accepted way of life, it does not limit to various communities, color, race, religion, and nationality.³ For example, Shufaa Hume, from Tanzania, chose Lebanon to study since she thought she will be more accepted in the Middle East than in the US. Hume was chased in the streets and she was offered money to have sex with a man. She was not accepted in the hospital, where a patient refused to share a room with her. She was not accepted by her roommate, who set strict rules on her on what she agrees her to do. No one dared to sit next to her in class. She tried talking to the university she is attending about her being racially profiled, they told her she is being "too sensitive" and that outside the campus of American University of Beirut is much worse.⁴
Discrimination is overgrowing in Lebanon, especially towards refugees. Refugee migration of Syrians leads to increased diversity in Lebanon and these refugees have to face stereotyped attitudes in the host country. Discriminatory behaviors, attitudes, and languages of Lebanese citizens against Syrian refugees in Lebanon are reflective to the government's scapegoating discourse. For instance, on the day of August 24, 2020, after few days of Beirut's explosion, the owner of the popular Café Em Nazih and five of their workers were arrested while cleaning the mess that happened from the explosion. The Café was in pieces. It was broken down into dust. The daughter of the owner opened live on Facebook to show the world that the Internal Security Forces are asking for the nationalities of the employees while cleaning the destructions. They were pulling the owner's broken arm after refusing to give them his employees' ID's, saying that they should focus on the damage and destructions of Beirut's explosion instead of focusing on checking the nationalities of people. The Internal Security Forces posted that they were only arrested because they were at risk and refused to collaborate, meanwhile the live post on Facebook says the complete opposite. Most opinions on the post say that it was definitely a bad timing to check the documentations of migrants and refugees. This behavior is not a new phenomenon in Lebanon.⁵
Syrian refugees have been blamed for the economic, social and security crises in the country by Lebanon’s leading political forces and elites. These talks created a xenophobic popular culture against Syrians among individuals and group gatherings. Syrian refugees are now the first to blame by the political parties whenever a small thing happen.⁶
Nearly three years ago, President of Lebanon General Michael Aoun stated that “The wave of Syrian displacement has produced negative repercussions that has impacted all Lebanese sectors.” He continued “Lebanon, which has provided all the humanitarian and logistical facilities for refugees during the Syrian war, believes that Syrian territory except for Idlib (province) and its surrounding area, is now stable, making it easier for refugees to return."⁷ Lebanon’s former minister of foreign affair and emigrants, and General Michael Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, requested the UK to reconsider their act on spending money to keep 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, since they are stealing the Lebanese citizens’ jobs and diminishing wages.⁸
Economic:
The scapegoating discourse does not come from a natural attitudes of Lebanese people towards discrimination. But, it indicates a big crisis the Lebanese government has been facing since 2005. It shows how the Lebanese authorities and government are unable to manage the Syrian refugees during the economic crisis Lebanon is facing. The Lebanese state is still trying to escape the pressure of being blamed for the economic crisis by blaming the Syrian refugees in return and demanding for their return to their country. Anger of Lebanese citizens is shifted to Syrian refugees instead of the government.
Lebanon is undergoing a deep economic crisis after consecutive governments piled up debts after the civil war 1990. In the face of lack of job opportunities and instability of the situation, skilled Lebanese and youths immigrate to find a better job opportunity or study in better universities. This economic crisis influenced the employment sector negatively. The unemployment rate is increasing, where the government attributed to the existence of Syrian refugees in the country. The unemployment rate increased up to 35%, where approximately 480,000 Lebanese citizens out of one million us unemployed.⁹ These Syrian refugees approved to work with low wages and hard conditions to live with dignity, denying the prestige. Moreover, Syrian families are in urge of money to live even if the parents are working, so child labor is spreading widely.
17 October Revolution started to stop the rising of prices of gasoline, tobacco and calls. As these of protests proceeded, it quickly widened to condemn the stagnation of the economy, unemployment, corruption inside the government, banking secrecy, and failures of the government to provide the basic rights, like electricity, water and sanitation. These protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri. Hassan Diab was elected to take his place, but he also resigned after Beirut's explosion.¹⁰ Lebanese citizens protested to live peacefully on their land. They were fully aware the corruption they were drowned in is because of their political parties and not Syrian refugees, as the political parties claim.
Employment:
Even though Syrians agree to work in agriculture, construction and cleaning services, unlike Lebanese people. They do not own a residence permit, so they are unable to get a labor permit. Thus, they work illegally and for a small wage.¹¹ In addition, Lebanese businesses are greedy. They would employ people who accept to be payed with low wages. Hence, who should we blame? Lebanese business owners who prefer to pay low wages or Syrian employees who accept these wages? Syrian refugees who own a good university degree and a great CV cannot work. The Lebanese government limited their work in cleaning and restaurants’ minor positions, as waiters or waitresses. For example, most of UNRWA schools hire Palestinian refugees born in Lebanon, when I was in middle school, only a Syrian refugee, originally Palestinian, was accepted to teach part-time Arabic subject to students in an UNRWA school, since he had a PhD in Arabic literature. Instead of having a full-time job or teaching higher class of students, he still had to work part-time in Middle School with his PhD. Most Syrians do not get accepted to work as teachers even if they have a strong degree.
Educational:
Lebanon does not take Syrian refugees’ education in consideration. Syrian students were deprived for almost two years of education due to failure by schools to provide them with distance learning. Education Ministry officials said in a meeting that almost 25000 young Syrians who must have enrolled in first grade did not. Many Syrian students cannot attend public schools, it might be because their families cannot afford the cost of transportation, or it might be because these public schools rejected them. Baccalaureate and Brevet tests, the official tests of Lebanon that every student must take to continue their education in university and high school respectively, are not taken by most Syrian refugees since they do not own a legal residency in Lebanon, so they cannot continue their education. ¹²
To solve this issue, humanitarian aid organizations created non-formal schools near Syrian refugees camps. However, the Education Ministry rejected to let them use the normal school curriculum. They only allowed these organizations to teach basic numeracy and literacy. Syrian students must do placement tests to get approved to enter. It is not obliged for other citizens. Syrian students who have not studied in Lebanese public schools must complete a donor-funded special accelerated learning program before entering the public school. But this program is not being offered online since Covid-19, so nearly 6500 Syrian students are left without any education.¹² This phenomenon will leave Syrians in Lebanon without education having to accept to work with low wages. They will not have a degree to work in appropriate environment with a rightful salary.
In my old High School, there were nearly 1000 students; only four of them were Syrians. The principal of this High School accepted all the non-Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian, students first even if they are not qualified to enter, and left the Syrian students at the last regardless of their academic standing. The classes were not full as she claimed. Four classes were fully empty, where they can occupy nearly 120 students tirelessly. Not to mention, the discrimination from the Lebanese teachers towards the Syrian students. For example, my math teacher in eleventh grade stopped my Syrian friend from entering the class even though he was not late. The math teacher let everyone else to enter except him. Once the class was full, he asked for his documentations, saying "I have every right to do it since you are living in my country". The student replied that he does not have the documentations with him, except his ID. The teacher then replied that it is not enough, and made him stand up as a punishment for this. I and other students, then said that it is not okay. He then said that he was messing around and there was nothing serious, after making him stand for 15 minutes for absolute no logical reason.
Social:
The discriminatory acts and attitudes stand on social sides, on the dead Syrians. Families of dead Syrian refugees in Lebanon are struggling to bury their beloved ones. Most of the time, these families leave the dead bodies in hospitals morgues while they are trying to find cemeteries that will accept the body. They usually cannot afford the fees of burying the body and hospital fees, so they carry the body in a card box and dig a hole in the grave with their bare hands. They also cannot afford the cost of burial, performing Islamic rites of cleansing, or shrouds and gravestones.¹³ Many refugees that are unable to locate and/or afford official gravesites for their loved ones tend to bury them in secret at night.¹⁴ Lebanese law does not ban Syrians to not bury their beloved bodies in Lebanese cemeteries, since they are regulated and managed by religious authorities at the municipal level. Each municipality of a town sets the rules, whether a Syrian can be buried in their cemetery or not.¹⁵ This shows that the Lebanese government is ignoring the xenophobic and discriminative acts towards the Syrian refugees. The Lebanese government will not reject the discriminatory acts towards dead Syrians, nor will they accept it. They do not want to be accused for supporting this discriminatory act, yet they want them to suffer, so they do not do anything about it.
In addition, Syrian refugees who work as waiters or waitresses must learn the Lebanese accent, since the Syrian accent is believed to annoy the customers.¹⁶ My friend in High School used to speak in Lebanese accent, so that he can make some friends with no problems and that he would not face any discrimination from his teachers. Everyone knew he was Syrian even if he was trying to hide it. It can be shown that Lebanese people knew a Syrian from his/her style and features. Sometimes they have to lie about their origin or fake it to get a job or to be equal to other students in the school.
Humanitarian aid organizations in Lebanon and outside must stop treating Syrian refugees in Lebanon through a strictly humanitarian view. They should take into consideration the governmental and political acts and discourses that create the negative thoughts of Lebanese citizens towards Syrian refugees. They must put pressure on media institutions, Lebanese citizens and politicians on their speeches, acts, and discourses. This could grab people that are outside the discriminative acts and sectors to focus on the real issues that Syrians are facing what Lebanese faced in the past and are still facing, in their struggle against exploitation and survival under oppression, wars, immigration, forced refuge, and social injustice.
Ending discrimination can start from normalizing having Syrian accent in Lebanon, instead of speaking fake Lebanese accent. It can be done by respecting the cultural and racial differences in both workplaces and schools. If business-owners started to accept their Syrian employees to speak their natural accents, Lebanese customers would start to get used to different communities on the same land.
Lebanese citizens show great amount of discrimination against Syrian refugees for taking their jobs and houses. However, the 17 October Revolution showed that the Lebanese citizens are aware of the corruption and economic crisis caused by the political parties.
Lebanese people struggled from the Lebanese civil was from 1975 to 1990, from July War in 2006 and recently from Beirut's explosion in 2020, but they are still drowning in the struggle of economic crisis. Lebanese people lost thousands of their loved ones and are living under oppression and injustice. Similarly, Syrian people until this day are under the Syrian civil war that started on 2011. Syria and Lebanon are stick to each other geographically, and both Lebanese and Syrians are facing the same exploitation. It does not make sense that Lebanon faced exploitation to treat Syrian refugees like this. They should share compassion and support as brothers and sisters.
Ending discrimination can start from normalizing having Syrian accent in Lebanon, instead of speaking fake Lebanese accent. It can be done by respecting the cultural and racial differences in both workplaces and schools. If business-owners started to accept their Syrian employees to speak their natural accents, Lebanese customers would start to get used to different communities on the same land.
Lebanese citizens show great amount of discrimination against Syrian refugees for taking their jobs and houses. However, the 17 October Revolution showed that the Lebanese citizens are aware of the corruption and economic crisis caused by the political parties.
Lebanese people struggled from the Lebanese civil was from 1975 to 1990, from July War in 2006 and recently from Beirut's explosion in 2020, but they are still drowning in the struggle of economic crisis. Lebanese people lost thousands of their loved ones and are living under oppression and injustice. Similarly, Syrian people until this day are under the Syrian civil war that started on 2011. Syria and Lebanon are stick to each other geographically, and both Lebanese and Syrians are facing the same exploitation. It does not make sense that Lebanon faced exploitation to treat Syrian refugees like this. They should share compassion and support as brothers and sisters.
References:
1. Lebanon arrests 8 as Syrian refugee camp set ablaze after fight. (2020b, December 27). Al Jazeera. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/27/syrian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon-set-ablaze-after-row#:%7E:text=The%20fire%20on%20Saturday%20night,leaving%20only%20a%20charred%20wasteland.&text=The%20National%20News%20Agency%20(NNA,family%20and%20%E2%80%9CSyrian%20workers%E2%80%9D.
2. Syrian refugee camp burned to ground in Lebanon. (2020, December 27). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.dw.com/en/syrian-refugee-camp-burned-to-ground-in-northern-lebanon/a-56068640
3. El-Halabi, B. (2021, February 19). Syrian Refugeehood, Racism and the Lebanese Question. Politics Today. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://politicstoday.org/syrian-refugeehood-racism-and-the-lebanese-question/
4. Sherlock, R. (2020, July 24). African Students Share How Often They Experience Racism In Lebanon. Npr. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2020/07/24/895191947/african-students-share-how-often-they-experience-racism-in-lebanon
5. Zakhour, M. (2020b, August 24). Em Nazih Cafe Owner & Employees Got Arrested While Fixing Their Blasted Place In Beirut. 961. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.the961.com/em-nazih-owner-employees-arrested/
6. Chit, B., & Nayel, M. (2013, October 1). Understanding racism against Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Center for Social Sciences Research & Actions. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://civilsociety-centre.org/paper/understanding-racism-against-syrian-refugees-lebanon
7. Houssari, N. (2019, June 25). Lebanese president insists on return of Syrian refugees. Arab News. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.arabnews.com/node/1515711/middle-east
8. Wintour, P. (2019b, June 15). Thousands of Syrian refugees could be sent back, says Lebanese minister. The Guardian. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/15/thousands-of-syrian-refugees-could-be-sent-back-says-lebanese-minister
9. Unemployment on the rise in Lebanon. (2021, January 5). LBC. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/d/news-bulletin-reports/588882/Lebanon-news-lbci/en?fbclid=IwAR3Egz5HR71l_iWb3WpwsaZoloIfxw7H-3tljN9QBZ52YIO8zL5JVwWecC8
10. 17 October Revolution. (2022, April 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_October_Revolution#cite_note-18
11. Azimov, K. (2022). The Situation of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Challenges and Prospects. Russia and the Moslem World, 1(315), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.31249/rmw/2022.01.07
12. Lebanon: Action Needed on Syrian Refugee Education Crisis. (2021b, March 26). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/26/lebanon-action-needed-syrian-refugee-education-crisis
13. Shaheen, K. (2017, March 30). Tiny graves: Syrian refugees in Lebanon struggle for space to bury children. The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/lebanon-no-space-syrian-refugees-graves-bury-dead
14. Fernandez, B. (2016, June 15). Even in death, there’s no place of rest for Syrians in Lebanon. Middle East Eye. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/even-death-theres-no-place-rest-syrians-lebanon
15. Medina, A. (2020, July 21). Lebanon: no country to bury Syrian refugees. Syria Direct. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://syriadirect.org/lebanon-no-country-to-bury-syrian-refugees/#:%7E:text=No%20Lebanese%20law%20bans%20Syrians,grave%20for%20their%20loved%20ones
16. Lawley, C. (2020, August 26). Beirut: An explosion that exposed the discrimination against Syrians. TRT World. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/beirut-an-explosion-that-exposed-the-discrimination-against-syrians-39217
1. Lebanon arrests 8 as Syrian refugee camp set ablaze after fight. (2020b, December 27). Al Jazeera. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/27/syrian-refugee-camp-in-lebanon-set-ablaze-after-row#:%7E:text=The%20fire%20on%20Saturday%20night,leaving%20only%20a%20charred%20wasteland.&text=The%20National%20News%20Agency%20(NNA,family%20and%20%E2%80%9CSyrian%20workers%E2%80%9D.
2. Syrian refugee camp burned to ground in Lebanon. (2020, December 27). Deutsche Welle. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.dw.com/en/syrian-refugee-camp-burned-to-ground-in-northern-lebanon/a-56068640
3. El-Halabi, B. (2021, February 19). Syrian Refugeehood, Racism and the Lebanese Question. Politics Today. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://politicstoday.org/syrian-refugeehood-racism-and-the-lebanese-question/
4. Sherlock, R. (2020, July 24). African Students Share How Often They Experience Racism In Lebanon. Npr. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2020/07/24/895191947/african-students-share-how-often-they-experience-racism-in-lebanon
5. Zakhour, M. (2020b, August 24). Em Nazih Cafe Owner & Employees Got Arrested While Fixing Their Blasted Place In Beirut. 961. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.the961.com/em-nazih-owner-employees-arrested/
6. Chit, B., & Nayel, M. (2013, October 1). Understanding racism against Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Center for Social Sciences Research & Actions. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://civilsociety-centre.org/paper/understanding-racism-against-syrian-refugees-lebanon
7. Houssari, N. (2019, June 25). Lebanese president insists on return of Syrian refugees. Arab News. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.arabnews.com/node/1515711/middle-east
8. Wintour, P. (2019b, June 15). Thousands of Syrian refugees could be sent back, says Lebanese minister. The Guardian. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/15/thousands-of-syrian-refugees-could-be-sent-back-says-lebanese-minister
9. Unemployment on the rise in Lebanon. (2021, January 5). LBC. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/d/news-bulletin-reports/588882/Lebanon-news-lbci/en?fbclid=IwAR3Egz5HR71l_iWb3WpwsaZoloIfxw7H-3tljN9QBZ52YIO8zL5JVwWecC8
10. 17 October Revolution. (2022, April 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_October_Revolution#cite_note-18
11. Azimov, K. (2022). The Situation of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Challenges and Prospects. Russia and the Moslem World, 1(315), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.31249/rmw/2022.01.07
12. Lebanon: Action Needed on Syrian Refugee Education Crisis. (2021b, March 26). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/26/lebanon-action-needed-syrian-refugee-education-crisis
13. Shaheen, K. (2017, March 30). Tiny graves: Syrian refugees in Lebanon struggle for space to bury children. The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/lebanon-no-space-syrian-refugees-graves-bury-dead
14. Fernandez, B. (2016, June 15). Even in death, there’s no place of rest for Syrians in Lebanon. Middle East Eye. Retrieved April 21, 2022, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/even-death-theres-no-place-rest-syrians-lebanon
15. Medina, A. (2020, July 21). Lebanon: no country to bury Syrian refugees. Syria Direct. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://syriadirect.org/lebanon-no-country-to-bury-syrian-refugees/#:%7E:text=No%20Lebanese%20law%20bans%20Syrians,grave%20for%20their%20loved%20ones
16. Lawley, C. (2020, August 26). Beirut: An explosion that exposed the discrimination against Syrians. TRT World. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/beirut-an-explosion-that-exposed-the-discrimination-against-syrians-39217