For one week, the Syrian government suspended the decision to exchange $100 into the Syrian pound – according to the official exchange rate (13,600 pounds per dollar) – when citizens enter through border crossings, meaning a decrease of 1,100 pounds from the actual price of 14,700 on the black market for one dollar.
The decision to suspend came last Sunday, September 29, hours after Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that he would direct Lebanese General Security to follow up on the issue with the Syrian Ministry of Interior.
This statement came following a question posed to Mikati about the role of the dismissal decision in obstructing the return of displaced “non-Lebanese” to their country, following a large wave of displacement of Syrians and Lebanese from southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs as a result of Israeli attacks and repeated eviction threats.
Controversy surrounding the decision since its issuance
Since its implementation in August 2020, the Syrian government’s decision to oblige Syrians to exchange $100 into the Syrian pound upon entering the country has met with much criticism, and calls have emerged to cancel it, but the decision has remained in effect without paying attention to these claims, and it represents another obstacle on the way back to Syria. .
According to what Syrian human rights activist Arif Al-Shaal posted on his Facebook page, the decision contains wholesale violations. “One of the requirements for respecting Article 38 of the Constitution, which prohibits preventing a citizen from returning to his homeland, is not to place administrative obstacles to this return, such as assuming that he has $100 and obliging him to To spend it at the official customs price! Not to mention that such a decision is considered an assault on the right of ownership of movable property by forcing the owner to use it and dispose of it against his will, in addition to the fact that such a decision is considered an indirect imposition of a fee that may not be imposed except by law.”
While the Minister of Finance at the time, Mamoun Hamdan, defended the legitimacy of the decision based on Legislative Decree No. 20 of 2017, which allows the Council to supervise the organization and management of monetary, credit, and insurance systems and the preservation of state funds.
During that period, Representative Ahmed Marei stated on Melody FM radio that he was in the process of questioning the government that issued the decision before the first session of the People’s Assembly was held.
Campaigns against the decision
Electronic campaigns calling for the suspension of the decision until the end of the war have been renewed, to ease the burden on Syrian refugee families in the country. According to estimates, all displaced Syrians in Lebanon, especially in the south, are day laborers, with an average monthly income of approximately $250, and not exceeding $300 at best. .
According to what activists reported, the cost of transportation per person to leave the areas threatened by bombing to the Syrian border reaches these amounts.
The Syrian government had partially responded to previous campaigns and exempted students from the decision, and also exempted the poor who did not have the money, after studying each case by the Minister of the Interior and verifying their financial situation, while no statement or response was issued regarding the current campaign, with the office member confirming that The Executive Director of Transport in the Damascus countryside, Alaa Al-Sheikh, told Sham FM radio last Thursday, “The disposal process is within the established legal protocol, while work is underway to speed up the procedure.”
Over the past few days, pictures have spread of dense crowding at the border waiting for the availability of liquidity in Syrian pounds to complete the entry of returnees. The wait in the exchange queue reached about 3 hours, according to the circulation, before staff cadres were increased to speed up the procedure.
The decision excludes drivers of public vehicles, truck owners, airline crews, and those under 18 years of age, and does not mention the sick, the elderly, or people with disabilities.
The Government Council decided in April 2021 that the six categories exempted from classification include, in addition to the above, those sent abroad and those displaced by “terrorism.”
New procedures
At the end of August, the Syrian Commercial Bank began handing cashable receipts to Syrians returning through the airport in exchange for the amount, noting that Syrian banks have been witnessing severe crowding for months, due to the low daily withdrawal ceiling to 5 million liras ($340 according to the black market), and directing citizens to Since the middle of the sixth month of this year, bank accounts have been opened, waiting for bread and fuel subsidies to be converted into an amount added periodically to their balances, which transfers the crowding at the borders to the banks’ queues.
The experimental decision began at Damascus Airport, and will be circulated to all land and air ports at a later time. The step was met with widespread discontent, which led to it being partially withdrawn. Arrivals were given the right to choose between receiving the amount, depositing it in an account with the commercial bank, or a receipt for its value.
The receipt is subject to rent, that is, giving it to another person, which opens room for profit by those working at the border crossings, by giving returnees a lower value in exchange for the check and saving the hassle of waiting at the bank.
Benefiting the Syrian regime
Amid these complications, some voices on social media demanded collecting a fee equal to $10, instead of the maze of exchange according to the official rate, and receiving money from small groups that complain of damage and wear.
It is worth noting that the citizen’s loss as a result of the relative difference between the actual price and the exchange rate at the border at the beginning of the decision reached 32%, before it was amended to reduce the citizen’s loss to 9% since April 2023.
According to the outcome of the first month of implementation of the decision, the Syrian regime benefited from about 620,000 dollars lost by 14,210 Syrian citizens who came to the country in August 2020.
While its total in the first three days of the current wave of displacement from 65 thousand Syrians – who crossed the border until the night of Saturday, September 28 last year – according to a source in the Immigration and Passport Department to the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan – amounted to 486 thousand dollars, taking into account the loss of one returnee of 110 thousand liras (7.48 dollars).
Temporary suspension
The suspension of the decision for a week came 5 days after the intensification of the wave of displacement towards Syria, mediated by a neighboring country, and while an obstacle was removed from the path of return, for a limited time, features of other obstacles began to appear on the scene, the most prominent of which is evident in the registration of children born during the period of residence of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon, who are outside the civil restrictions in Syria.
Campaigns began on social media demanding that reassurances be given to those wishing to return, such as granting them a postponement of military service for a year for those wanted for military service, and providing the option of settlement for those wanted.
