Access to justice for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

This collection is concerned with access to asylum justice in the sense outlined in Chapter 1; that is: it focuses on the ability of protection seekers to overcome the physical obstacles to reaching territory as well as the legal, policy or political barriers to a quality asylum procedure. The majority of chapters have explored the interplay between law and asylum, largely focusing on restrictive interpretations of the law or the inability of asylum seekers and refugees to benefit from rights and entitlements provided by the law. The countries considered are all party to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees/1967 Protocol (Refugee Convention) and they are therefore bound under international law to meet their obligations to refugees as set out in the Convention. Some, of course, have gone further and have established sophisticated refugee determination systems or constructed an architecture of asylum, ostensibly to provide asylum seekers and refugees with minimum standards of treatment.1 Lebanon is different and the position of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is arguably unique. Alongside many of its Middle Eastern neighbours, it is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention or to the Protocol. It does not have a national asylum process and it has a very regional view towards the idea of the ‘refugee’ or those seeking protection within its borders. It is also an example of a developing, low income economy that has been obliged to handle enormous numbers of displaced people over a considerable period of time with limited and shrinking resources, a public debt (as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) continuing to rise,2 and enduring political instability.3 The consequences have been extreme. This chapter will examine the Lebanese refugee context by outlining the legal background in relation to migration and border controls and exploring the handling of refugee arrivals with special reference to the recent Syrian conflict