Lebanon deports SL mother and son

A 13-year-old Sri Lankan boy who was born in Lebanon and had lived there all his life and his mother were issued deportation notices by General Security-Lebanon’s security agency in charge of foreigners’ entry and residence-in June even though the boy was enrolled in school, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

It said that the boy’s father, also from Sri Lanka, was not expelled from Lebanon.

The boy, who is now in Sri Lanka, said, “Someone at the Lebanese General Security said that they were not issuing visas to children anymore. We only had two days to leave. I had had a residency permit in Lebanon since I was born. I never lived in Sri Lanka before. My mom and I are now in Sri Lanka. My mom has no work here and is trying to go back to Lebanon. My dad is still in Lebanon. If she leaves, I will have to stay here and live with my cousins.”

Nine nongovernmental organizations working in Lebanon revealed that Lebanon is deporting locally born children of migrant workers and in some cases their mothers.

A recent decision by General Security, to deny residency permit renewals for a number of low-wage migrants who have had children in Lebanon and for their children disproportionately interferes with the right to family life.

The migrants affected said that their children have few or no ties to their home country and many do not speak their parents’ native tongue, making the potential for successful integration in schools back home very difficult. Many of these migrants come from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ghana, South Sudan, and Madagascar.