Iraqi refugees in Lebanon

Iraqis fleeing violence in their homeland are increasingly detained in Lebanon and jailed alongside "common criminals," a U.S. refugee protection group said Monday. . .
The report, however, highlighted the plight of the estimated 50,000 Iraqis who have reached Lebanon.

It said authorities have been "systematically arresting and detaining those who are in Lebanon illegally" since May, when government troops battled al-Qaida inspired militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north.

"The government has taken to detaining Iraqis, placing them in jail with common criminals," the report said.

Lebanese government did not immediately comment on the report. But security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media, said about half of the estimated 1,000 jailed illegal migrants were Iraqi. Most of them likely face deportation because of prison overcrowding, the officials said.

The Iraqis are picked up for overstaying their visas or for entering the country illegally, the report said.

Stephane Jaquemet, the regional representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Iraqis in Lebanon are not recognized by the government as refugees because there "is no mechanism in the law" for that status. He put the number of Iraqis currently in jail at about 580.

Jaquemet said the UNHCR has unsuccessfully tried to get Lebanese authorities to legalize the Iraqi refugees.

Michel Kassarji, head of the Lebanese Chaldean Church, which has a following in Iraq, put the number of Iraqis in Lebanon at about 80,000. Kassarji urged for international pressure on Lebanon to give the refugees temporary residence.

P.S. In my mind the reflex of urging for "international pressure on Lebanon" is an indicator of the failure of the Lebanese political system, the weakness of dissenting groups, and the hegemony of foreign powers.