Ahead of the upcoming school year, local authorities and politicians in Lebanon are seeking to impose discriminatory restrictions that could result in tens of thousands of refugee children being denied their right to education.
On July 8, Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea wrote on social media that the Education Ministry must require all students to provide identification papers to register for the 2024-25 school year, for both public and private schools. Foreign students, including Syrians, he insisted, must have valid residency permits to register.
In July and August, at least two municipalities in Lebanon issued their own statements requiring valid Lebanese residency permits for Syrian children to enroll in school.
But due to the red tape and stringent criteria for renewal of Lebanese residency permits, only around 20 percent of Syrian refugees have valid residency status in Lebanon. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also halted formal registration of Syrian refugees in 2015 in compliance with a government order.
Through no fault of their own, the children of the approximately 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are unregistered and undocumented risk losing their access to school.
For years, Lebanon’s refugee population has endured toxic anti-refugee rhetoric blaming them for the country’s overlapping crises. Much of that scapegoating is directed at Lebanon’s Syrian refugee community, estimated to be around 1.5 million people, and has resulted in discrimination, violence, and summary deportations.
But now, such anti-refugee policies are targeting one of the most basic needs of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugee children: education.
In an interview with L’Orient le Jour on August 13, 2024, Lebanese Minister of Education Abbas Halabi reiterated that his ministry is committed to the core principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that all children, regardless of nationality or status, will be registered for school in Lebanon.
As the new school year begins, foreign donors that have given substantial sums to education in Lebanon should press the government to follow through on Halabi’s words. The Lebanese government should ensure all children, regardless of nationality or status, can register for school and are not denied the right to an education.