'We don't dare go out at night': In crisis-hit Lebanon, Syrian refugees are kidnapped for ransom

Mohammad* is thirty years old, with a finely chiselled beard and dark eyes which, despite their youth, have already seen their share of hardship.

The Syrian refugee has been living in Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city and the poorest of the Mediterranean basin since he fled the war-torn suburbs of Aleppo in 2011.

Like everyone else in Tripoli, Mohammad has long dreamed of leaving for Europe - especially since the police had confiscated his passport and threatened to deport him to Syria.

"I had contacted a smuggler to forge me a new passport and fly to Germany via Turkey," he told The New Arab. One brisk morning in March 2022, a white van picked him up to bring him to the airport.

But before Mohammad could reach his destination, he was abducted by the same smugglers who had promised him safety.

"At a time when Lebanon and Syria are suffering from unprecedented economic crises, [kidnapping] is an easy source of cash for criminal networks based on the border"

The white van was, in fact, manned by gunmen who took him to Beit Hawik, a small village between the Syrian border and North Lebanon governorate - a deserted borderland where Assad and Hezbollah flags flutter in the wind.

“On the first evening, our captors were kind to us, they brought me shawarma and ice cream to reassure us. They organised a drug party with Hezbollah people and even offered me hashish and heroin," Mohammad recalled.

The conservative, pro-Iranian, and religiously Shia political party boasts one of the most powerful militias in the region. It also has strong ties to clan families who earn their living from drug trafficking and smuggling across the Syrian border - one of which abducted Mohammad.

For three days, he was held in a room, deprived of his possessions. Things almost escalated when he refused to send a voice message to his father via WhatsApp to say that he had safely arrived in Turkey.

"An armed man took my hand and held a gun to my fingers. He threatened to shoot them off one by one and send them to my father as a threat," he recalled.

Shortly afterwards, Mohammad was taken to the Syrian border, where Lebanese security forces cannot reach. "The smuggler blindfolded me, took off my shoes and pushed me in front of the barrel of his pistol until we reached a village near Qusayr in Syria,” he said.

The smugglers demanded $8,000 for his return. To afford the ransom, Mohammad’s family had to sell their car, along with many of their belongings. After a week in captivity in Syria, Mohammad was brought back to Lebanon, passing through several army checkpoints, where the soldiers let the smugglers through.

He safely returned to his family and has continued living in Tripoli. Since then, he has never gone to the police for fear of being arrested and deported himself.

A backdrop of security crisis

Kidnappings are not a new phenomenon in Lebanon, but the country has seen a worrying increase in these crimes in recent years, particularly in the regions bordering Syria.

At a time when Lebanon and Syria are suffering from unprecedented economic crises, this is an easy source of cash for criminal networks based on the border: the ransoms range from an average of a few thousand dollars up to ten million.

The Lebanese army has proven powerless to curb the phenomenon. With almost one hundred cases recorded, the number of kidnappings has nearly doubled this year compared to 2022.

However, a high-ranking member of the security forces, who wished to remain anonymous, told The New Arab that the police and army were doing their best under present circumstances.

"[Syrian refugees] have little hope of justice, as they are regularly the target of hate campaigns, arrests, deportations, and expulsions by the Lebanese state"

"Our operations have a high success rate, and we often manage to free the abductees by putting pressure on the criminals or freeing them ourselves in cooperation with the army."

Two Lebanese children were freed by security forces last January after two months in captivity, during which they were tortured. Last year, several similar army raids made the headlines when an Egyptian businessman, a Saudi resident, and two Lebanese men were rescued.

But kidnappings cannot be tackled by the security forces alone, the source added. "The reasons for this trafficking and insecurity are above all social, and we really need to invest in these regions if we want to put an end to the security issue."

Although Lebanese and foreign citizens have been freed in the past, the situation is vastly different for kidnapped Syrian refugees. They have little hope of justice, as they are regularly the target of hate campaigns, arrests, deportations, and expulsions by the Lebanese state.

Access Centre Human Rights (ACHR), an NGO focused on refugee rights in Lebanon, recorded 365 cases of forced deportation between April and June, as well as 841 arbitrary arrests.

The NGO denounced abductions supposedly carried out by the army, a policy that "has contributed to the escalation of cases of financial extortion across the border by human traffickers", according to the report.

For example, 82 refugees deported to Syria were handed over by the Syrian army to traffickers via the Wadi Khaled border crossing in northern Lebanon - close to where Mohammad was held.

Assad's arms reach far into Lebanon

Indeed, the smugglers often have strong ties to the Assad regime, the Syrian army, and their Lebanese allies: Hezbollah, and a few other political parties, as well as the smuggling clans. They often target political enemies of the Syrian government in Lebanon.

"I fled Raqqa to escape the violence of the Islamic State and the Assad regime, but I continue to live in danger in Lebanon," explained 36-year-old Maryam*. Because of their work with an NGO, she and her husband Mourad* have reportedly received three death threats from pro-Assad militias in Lebanon.

As night falls, Maryam and her husband double-lock the metal door of their small apartment near Bar Elias, in the Bekaa Valley. "We don't dare go out at night, and live in fear of being kidnapped," said Mourad.

In most cases, Syrians are simply a vulnerable target for the smugglers. Mohammad himself knows that he was abducted by members of the Zeaiter clan, having seen the name etched on the walls of his Syrian jail cell.

This family militia, which claims to be able to mobilise between 5,000 and 10,000 armed men, is well known for its involvement in the smuggling of captagon, heroin, and hashish between the Qusayr region of Syria - where Mohammad was held captive - and Lebanon.

"The smugglers often have strong ties to the Assad regime, the Syrian army, and their Lebanese allies"

“I know they are allied to Hezbollah because they threatened me that if I talked to anyone about my kidnapping, the party would come for me,” Mohammad told The New Arab.

One of the clan's leaders, Ali Zeaiter, has been the target of a series of raids by the Lebanese army for over 380 warrants, but is still evading arrest. Nouh Zeaiter, another kingpin, has also been filmed fighting with Hezbollah and the Syrian army against the Islamic State.

For Mohammad, living in Tripoli's Sunni stronghold protects him somewhat from another kidnapping, as Hezbollah's presence there is minimal.

"But I don't feel safe anywhere, I was even afraid to come to the interview", he told The New Arab, adding that he is plagued by frequent nightmares.

“I used to be strong and optimistic, but this experience has broken my character. If I'd stayed another week in captivity, I'd have gone mad”.

*Names have been changed to protect the safety of interviewees

Philippe Pernot is a French-German photojournalist living in Beirut. Covering anarchist, environmentalist, and queer social movements, he is now the Lebanon correspondent for Frankfurter Rundschau and an editor for various international media.

Follow him on Twitter: @PhilippePernot7