First paragraph (Teaser):

++UPDATED++

Following several days of announcements in a Lebanese daily newspaper and
on the official Lebanese TV station, the Lebanese General Security forces,
in cooperation with the Iraqi government and the UNHCR, today started
deporting 353 Iraqi refugees back to Iraq in what they described as a
"voluntary repatriation".

Mary Foster, an organizer with the Montreal-based Iraq Solidarity Project,
is currently in Beirut, and accompanied Lebanese activists from IMC Beirut
and other groups when they went to interview Iraqi refugees facing removal
to Iraq this morning. The people they spoke with left no doubt that the
deportations are anything but "voluntary". (The full report is reposted
below.)

Please take the time to respond to email UNHCR and Lebanese authorities to
protest the deportation of Iraqi refugees back to a brutally occupied war
zone.

Rest of the text:

Urgent Letter Writing Action in Solidarity with Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon

reposted from IMC Beirut:
http://www.beirut.indymedia.org/ar/2004/09/1674.shtml

Please send emails of protest to the UNHCR and the Lebanese government
protesting the continuous deportation of Iraqi refugees and demanding an
immediate halt to it. Please also include a demand to the Lebanese
government to sign and ratify 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees' rights
and put an end to the inhumane treatment of refugees and "illegal"
immigrants in Lebanon.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR CONTACTS OF CONCERNED PERSONNEL.

====> Suggested letter of protest

To whom it may concern at the UNHCR and the Lebanese Parliament, I (or we)
are writing in protest of the continuous deportation of Iraqi refugees in
Lebanon back to Iraq. The current situation under the occupation and the
ongoing violence is not safe for return. The intended deportees do not
have the "legal" status of refugees but this does not reduce the
dangers of their deportation.

I (we) demand

1- An immediate halt to the inhumane deportations

2- End all forms of discrimination and oppression against all refugees in
Lebanon

3- Lebanon signs the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugee Rights and ratifies
it.

Please send you letters, emails, faxes to the following

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Geneve 2 Dept Suisse. telephone number: +41 22 739 8111
(automatic switchboard). Email address: unh...@unhcr.ch

UNHCR responsible in Geneva for Lebanon
Ekber Menemencioglu: mene...@unhcr.ch
Laurens Jolles: jol...@unhcr.ch

UNHCR - Beirut Office
Mohammed Hantosh : hant...@unhcr.ch
Daniel Alkhal: alk...@unhcr.ch

Lebanese president Emile Lahoud
http://www.presidency.gov.lb/write/write/write.htm

Marwan Fares, MP, Head of the Parliamentary committee on human rights Fax:
+961 1 868600

EU Ambassador in Lebanon
Patrick Renauld: patr...@cec.eu.int

EU Parlimentarians
Luisa Morgantini: imor...@europl.eu.int
Human Rights Officer: blac...@ohchr.org
Associate Expert : cmar...@chchr.org
Human Rights Officer: bmaj...@ohchr.org

=============>
BACKGROUNDER
=============>

UNHCHR Ongoing deportation of Iraqi Refugees back to the war zone!

reposted from IMC Beirut: http://beirut.indymedia.org/ar/2004/09/1673.shtml

Lebanese state deports 353 "illegal" Iraqi refugees (stay posted for
Arabic translations and constant updates)

(Beirut, 15 September 2004) Following several days of announcements in a
Lebanese daily newspaper and on the official Lebanese TV station, the
Lebanese General Security forces, in cooperation with the Iraqi government
and the UNHCR, today started deporting 353 Iraqi refugees back to Iraq in
what they described as a "voluntary repatriation".

We arrived at the scene at 8am. On arrival, we found that many Iraqis had
already assembled at the announced gathering spot, a schoolyard owned by
the Mabarrat Humanitarian Organization, affiliated with the Hezbollah
political party. In the schoolyard, the Iraqis were under the "protection"
of the General Security forces. They were sitting or standing in
groups with their friends; some surrounded by their belongings in
cardboard boxes, bags and suitcases, some with nothing at all. Refugees
were still arriving as the General Security began organizing their
departure in the dozen waiting buses. The buses had Iraqi license plates
and the drivers were Iraqi.

Practically everyone we saw were men, with only one or two women and one
young girl. Later we learned that the woman and children had been
separated from the men and put in different buses which would lead the
convoy.

Officers and doctors from the UNHCR and IOM were also there to lend a hand
in the operation, standing outside the area in which the refugees were
gathered. When we first approached them, they were busy with lists of
names. They were reluctant to speak to us, and referred us to a
spokesperson from UNHCR who would soon arrive. As we moved off, the
lieutenant from the General Security came up to shake hands with the
officials from the cooperating organizations.

Red Cross was also present, explaining to IMC Beirut that in previous such
deportations, people had fainted.

Under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, the refugees were hesitant to
talk openly. The first man we interviewed, originally from Baghdad, smiled
and assured us that he was leaving voluntarily. He explained that he had
signed papers from the General Security, the Iraqi embassy and the UNHCR
saying that the return was voluntarily. We asked him whether he had signed
the voluntary repatriation documents under pressure of settling his
"illegal" status, and he answered yes. He told us that he
had family and a place to return to, but that not everyone did. He knew
that the situation in Iraq was insecure, and only hoped that they would
arrive safely.

After we interviewed him, his wife quietly approached us, asking for our
help to stay. Her husband later told us that he did not want to leave.

We then spoke to a man who spoke of his frustration with the treatment he
was receiving. He told us that the refugees were scheduled to leave at
1pm, and would arrive in Baghdad at 5 or 6am. He said that they were
sitting there like animals in the sun, with no washrooms, and said that he
needed medication for his arm, which was in a cast. They had been promised
medical care, but had not yet received any.

He and his friends had no belongings ? they were leaving with nothing. He
also described the harassment and difficulties he had faced in trying to
live as an "illegal" in Lebanon. He had signed papers, but was not sure
what he had signed.

As we began a third interview, the lieutenant in charge asked the IMC
Beirut crew to stop filming and leave the premises. He told us to film
outside, noting that the "premises" were a schoolyard. The refugee had
been telling us again that the Lebanese government had treated them well
and the return was voluntary, but once the camera was off and the security
forces left, his story changed. He agreed to come outside the area to
speak with us.

As we walked outside the area together, we saw more people arriving in
shared taxis with their cardboard boxes and suitcases, and the General
Security and Iraqi officials with long lists of names.

Outside the area, the refugee said that they were being forced to return.
The alternative would be arrest and imprisonment ? unless you happened to
have several thousand dollars to get legal papers. He said that four
hundred "illegals" had been deported directly from jail last month. They
had been imprisoned for different amounts of time, some as many as seven
months. In jail, they had no rights, not even to make telephone calls, and
were sometimes without food, cigarettes and deprived of sleep. If their
friends tried to visit them at jail, they would also be arrested. He said
that it was better to leave with dignity than to get arrested and be
deported anyway.

As he left, another man came up to us, wanting to tell his story. He was
from Kut, in southern Iraq. He walked with a limp, which he told us was
due to torture during Saddam's regime. He was not leaving, but there to
say goodbye to his friends, who were being forced to return. He said they
had come to Lebanon via Syria and Jordan because the situation was so bad
in Iraq, which is, after all, a war zone.

Since their arrival in Lebanon, they had suffered terrible conditions.
They have been treated with complete lack of respect, with no protection
for their rights, many working on a day-to-day basis as porters. Saying
that he had often gone to bed without food, he described conditions in
Lebanon as the worst of the three Arab countries in which they had tried
to find refuge from the war. This is not the first time Lebanon has been
described as the worst concerning refugees' human rights among the Arab
countries; the same is said about the conditions of Palestinians in
Lebanese refugee camps.

Proving the point, a member of the General Security forces later stated to
IMC Beirut, in front of the Iraqis, that the refugees were taking
opportunities from the Lebanese and that there was no room for them here.

But even though conditions as an illegal in Lebanon are miserable, the
refugee said that some Iraqis who had already been deported have returned,
choosing the suffering of an "illegal" in Lebanon over remaining in a war
zone.

None of the refugees we spoke to were officially recognized as refugees by
UNHCR. Signing the documents that they were returning voluntarily meant
that they were not the responsibility of the UNHCR, and could be treated
as illegal by Lebanon. Two out of three people asked whether they would
have registered for voluntary repatriation if they had legal status in
Lebanon, said they would not have. If they had legal status, they would
have been free to find a job without constant fear of police persecution.
All of the people interviewed told us that they did not know if anything
had been prepared for them in Iraq, and that they feared they would be on
their own in trying to re-integrate, though many had lived outside for
years. One man told us despairingly that all that awaited him in Iraq was
joining the fight against the Americans with Sadr's forces.

"No one is being forced to return," emphasized Shaden Khallaf, UNHCR
Repatriation Officer, whose t-shirt announced "Einstein was a refugee".
The young woman explained that the refugees were not in fact refugees, but
actually illegal immigrants. Thus, according to the law, they could be
punished. She told us that each had received US$60 to cover their expenses
during the trip.

UNHCR had decided not to get involved in the deportation which happened a
month ago, because the situation in Iraq was not secure at that time. Then
they were approached by the Lebanese General Security office and asked for
their assistance with the current "voluntary repatriations", explained the
spokeswoman.

When asked why UNHCR had changed its position and decided to get involved,
even though the situation in Iraq was still very bad, Shaden replied that
though they recognize that things are still dangerous, the UNHCR could not
prevent these people from returning voluntarily. She said that UNHCR had
explained the security situation in Iraq to each individual, and that they
still wanted to return. UNHCR must respect their right to return, she
said.

Later trying to reach the Iraqi embassy for comments, IMC Beirut was told
that no staff were available. All were onsite, helping with the
deportations. Our questions about a possible connection between the
cooperation of the Iraqis in the deportations and the Iraqi funds frozen
in Lebanese banks remain unanswered.

Amnesty International told us that a group of Iraqis had contacted them,
and had refused to sign the "voluntary repatriation" papers. IMC is trying
to contact this group- since their security situation is critical, it will
take more time. A year ago, Amnesty protested the deportation of Iraqi
refugees, which was covered by the media. They agreed that more
deportations of Iraqis from Lebanon were to be expected in the future.