Will new Lebanese border rules discourage Syrian refugees?

Read the Full Transcript

• GWEN IFILL:

  In the Middle East, Syrians attempting to flee fighting were turned away today by the Lebanese government. The bordering nation, which has been straining under the weight of its refugee population, is now imposing new restrictions aimed at slowing the influx of asylum-seekers.

  Humanitarian groups are concerned that the new policy may leave Syrians trapped inside a war zone with no way out. All told, the conflict has produced more than three million refugees. According to the U.N., more than a million registered refugees are in both Lebanon and neighboring Turkey. Jordan is host to more than 600,000, Iraq nearly a quarter-million.

  Joining me to help put all this in perspective is chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner.

  Margaret, how big? What is the scope of the problem we're talking about in Lebanon?

• MARGARET WARNER:

  It's absolutely huge. Lebanon is being swamped in proportion to its population.

  So, right now, more than a quarter of the people living in Syria living in Syria are — living in Lebanon are Syrian refugees. In other words, there's 1.2 million. There's another probably half-million that don't register with the U.N. By many accounts, Lebanon has the highest proportion of total refugees, because they have all these Palestinians, remember, from 40, 50, 60 years ago, in the world.

  So it's put a huge strain on resources. I mean, there are some towns, I'm told, where there are more babies born to Syrian mothers than to Lebanese mothers. There are some schools now where there are more Syrian children at least trying to get into the schools than there are Lebanese children.

  And so apparently these new restrictions were agreed upon in the cabinet by all these different sectarian groups. There's the Shiites, i.e., Hezbollah. There's the Sunnis. There's the Christians. They often don't agree on much. On this,they totally agree. Public opinion, the resentment is across all categories.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Why is Lebanon — it's not the only bordering country to Syria. Why is it getting such a hit, taking such a hit?

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Well, part — partly, it's accessible. In other words, people flee wherever they can get to a border, and it's closest.

  So, in the case of Lebanon to the south, this has been an area that was semi-controlled by the Free Syrian Army, the opposition, or at least there was open area. And Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida-like group, they're in a kind of uneasy collusion. So people fleeing from Damascus have come that way and from that whole area.

  It really is, people flee closest to where they can get to and not get killed in the process. But you have got to remember there are also millions of Syrians inside Syrian who can't even get across borders anywhere.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Right.

  Is there any distinction that is drawn among these refugees who are in Lebanon between political refugees and humanitarian refugees?

• MARGARET WARNER:

  No, not really.

  I mean, first of all, there always had been this treaty of friendship and cooperation between the two, so you didn't even need a visa to come in. So many of these are people who came in and out. And we saw that when we were there 18 months ago.

  They might come in and buy food and go back out and back and forth. A lot of Syrian officials and pro-Assad businessmen now have put their families in Beirut. Syria and Lebanon have always had a very, very close relationship. But, no, they didn't make a distinction.

  And so now what the U.N. is worried about is, if you look at these new restrictions, they don't even mention the word refugee. They say, you have to say if you're coming in as a businessperson, a tourist, a visa — a student.

  And so the U.N. is asking for clarification. The rules do say, if you're already in Lebanon, you won't be asked to leave. So…

• GWEN IFILL:

  Well, that was my next question.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Yes.

• GWEN IFILL:

  We're talking about three million people, a million accounted for.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Yes, 1.5 million.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Roughly.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Yes.

• GWEN IFILL:

  So — well, it's more than roughly, but, OK, 1.5 million.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Yes.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Assuming that those folks are there, they're safe from repatriation?

• MARGARET WARNER:

  They're safe from repatriation.

  But what it doesn't say in the rules is what happens to the mother and her starving children, sick child who arrive at the border. And so far, I'm told this afternoon no answer yet from the Lebanese government. And what it does say if you don't meet one of the categories, you have to get someone to vouch for you who is Lebanese.

  Now, one, there is a huge opportunity for corruption. But, secondly, it is a way for the government to retain some control, but send a message to Syrians, look, don't head our way.

  Finally, of course, what they mean it is as a wakeup call to the international community, which is, if you want us to have an open border, you have got to help us pay for it. And the international community has not.

• GWEN IFILL:

  And if you're Iraq and you're Jordan, you would consider the same thing.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  You absolutely would.

  Now, in the case of Iraq, mostly, these are the poor Yazidis and others who would go in through Syria and out there. It's pretty unsafe now to get into Iraq, but yes. And all these countries are being overwhelmed. I mean, Turkey is a huge country and a huge economy.

  But the big difference, Gwen, if I may just point out, is because Lebanon didn't want to establish camps, because they didn't want another Palestinian situation because of their ethnic sectarian balance, they have made it harder for themselves, because there is no place for the U.N. to even administer aid.

• GWEN IFILL:

  They're everywhere.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  They do it informally through food vouchers, but there are no established camps in which the U.N. can get in there and help run things. So, it's particularly desperate.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Really important story.

  Margaret Warner, thank you.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  My pleasure.