The crisis in Lebanon has become good business for the Syrian military: anyone who wants to escape from Lebanon to Syria is forced to pay a hefty "entrance" fee. Returning Syrians pay up to $600 to enter Syria.
The journey is long and difficult - and increasingly expensive. It took seven days and $1,300 for Khaled Massoud and his family to find some safety in northern Syria, where they fled Israeli bombing in Lebanon. His Syrian family of six, as well as that of his daughter, are now in a refugee camp near Maarat Misrin, north of Idlib, in a rebel-held area.
This week, the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said that at least 220,000 people have crossed from Lebanon to Syria since the start of Israeli bombing. About 80% of them are Syrian. Lebanese authorities estimate that up to 400,000 people have crossed into Syria.
For Syrians returning to their country, crossing the border from neighboring Lebanon is not at all easy. Since 2011, a civil war has been going on in Syria - between the government of dictator Bashar Assad and anti-government forces. Anyone who fled the country during the war is viewed with suspicion, considered a traitor to the Assad regime. Syrian men who return may be detained, tortured, forcibly conscripted into the Syrian army or even killed, according to rights groups that regularly document such cases.
On their way back to Syria, returnees pass through numerous checkpoints. Each of them is asked for money to pass. That's why the adventure cost Masood's family about 1,300 dollars.
Profiting from people's misery
As Israel continues to bomb Lebanon, it becomes a lucrative business for the security forces. "Each checkpoint takes what they want," said Hadi Othman, a 20-year-old Syrian who also just made a trip back to Idlib. "This is more of a business, and how much they will ask depends on their mood," he adds.
Othman and others told DV that people pay between 300 and 600 dollars to return to the areas controlled by the opposition. There are indications that the scheme also involves local militias, such as the Syrian-Kurdish forces in the area, who cooperate with the Syrian military to extort money from the returnees. They are held between checkpoints until a larger group is assembled and everyone pays a few hundred dollars each, then they are let on their way. This is one of the reasons the journey takes so long. According to the DV source, the money is then distributed among the various groups that monitor the roads to the opposition-controlled area. This information has not been independently verified.
"Walking Dollar Bills"
Displaced Syrians are often insulted, assaulted or even arrested, the source added. But people who pay are allowed to continue, adds the informant.
"People are scared, tired and looking for a place to stay. If the war in Lebanon was no worse than the situation in Syria, they would have stayed there - despite the acts of racism. They are now seen as walking dollar bills. People who take money from them accuse them of being traitors. They tell them they are rich," he adds.
According to UN data, about 470 families have already arrived in the territories controlled by the opposition – a total of about 2,500 people - and 200 single men. And many more are on the way. If the average amounts that witnesses claim to have paid are correct, then the security forces must have extorted probably over a million dollars so far from the displaced Syrians coming from Lebanon.
These entry fees represent a lot of money for the majority of Syrians who have sought refuge in Lebanon, as 90% of these people live there in poverty. Under Lebanese law, Syrians cannot work legally, and those who do earn less than $100 a month from odd jobs, according to the United Nations.
Osman, who has lived in Lebanon since 2012, assures that he spends everything he manages to earn. At the last checkpoint between Manbij, controlled by Kurdish forces, and the Syrian city of Jarablus, passers-by collected a $10 fee. "We rebelled and stormed the border without anyone paying," he says.