Last week, Lebanese Army Intelligence arrested Mohammad Haji and Hekmat Idris, two Syrian army defectors in Rashaya, a town south of Beqaa near the Syrian border. News reports suggest that Haji and Idris had fled Syria because they no longer wished to take part in the violence there. While an investigation is said to be underway, until now there has been no news about the Syrian soldiers’ fate, and whether they are likely to face deportation.

This incident has raised awareness of the serious issue of the forced – and secret – deportations of several self-exiled Syrian army officers-turned-rebels from Lebanon back to Syria, where they face almost certain death. Because Lebanese authorities do not recognize Syrian officers-turned-rebels as refugees, any defectors who enter Lebanon are arrested for trespassing and sentenced by the military tribunal to deportation.

Lawyer Hasna Abdul Reda explains to NOW that although Lebanon is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, the state is obliged to take in asylum seekers who are under threat of being prosecuted in their home country. Other legal experts and human rights activists believe that such contraventions to international legal standards continue to take place secretly, away from the gaze of the media. [Link]