“The Current” Alone in Confrontation… Bassil: We Have Been Fighting Since 2011 for the Return of Syrians!

Lebanon Today

During a dialogue with a youth group within the “Batrouniyat” activities, the issue of Syrian displacement was discussed, considering that instead of taking the necessary measures to return the Syrians to their country, the government today allowed Syrian students to register in public schools without possessing identification documents.

He added: “Any student living in Syria can decide to come to Lebanon to study whenever they want, and this affects the level of the public school.”

He believes that the danger of this issue lies in the fact that the government is encouraging Syrians to stay in Lebanon, and even more than that, encouraging them to come from Syria to Lebanon, reminding that the “Free Patriotic Movement” is the only one that took this position and raised its voice since 2011.

He said: “Everyone was silent about the issue of Syrian displacement, while the Movement is the only one that is fighting and submitting laws for the return of Syrians to their country. As long as the return has not happened, this means that neither we nor your future is well, because the Syrian labor force is less expensive than the Lebanese, so the Lebanese are forced to emigrate, and the displaced person takes their place.”

Regarding the issue of expatriate voting, he pointed out that they “obtained the right to vote from abroad for the first time in 2018 thanks to the Movement, with a law passed in the House of Representatives,” noting that “the choice today is open to them, by law, to elect a deputy from the six deputies abroad or a deputy from their district in Lebanon.”

He continued: “The problem is that the rest of the political parties are each seeking to abolish this right or keep the six seats, and the great fear is that they will return us to before 2018, and thus the expatriate vote from abroad will be canceled, and this is what we do not want as a Free Patriotic Movement.”