«The route is open up to Italy» confirms the Lebanese human trafficker on the phone. The thick voice is that of someone who has just woken up after a night of clandestine passages in Syria. Its “part” of the route is from the north of the Cedar Country to Latakia, which is a Syrian city on the Mediterranean coast not far from the border with Turkey. Khaled, a fictitious name, tells Panorama about the illegal routes that reach Europe. Lebanon, after Israel’s ground attack and the bombings that decimated Hezbollah, is a human “time bomb”. Over a million displaced people (20 percent of the entire population) and almost 400 thousand have already fled abroad, 276 thousand to Syria from where they could continue to Turkey, relying on traffickers, and then embark towards Cyprus, Greece or Italy.
The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloniat the end of the visit to Lebanon on 18 October, he underlined in an informal conversation with Panoramathat «today having one displaced person in Lebanese territory out of every five inhabitants is a risk that we look at from our point of view of possible migratory flows, but even before that it could create a situation of no return in Lebanon». Italy aims to involve Brussels: «The issue must be brought to a European level immediately, otherwise the situation could become explosive. Both in Lebanese territory and up to our home.” A few hours before landing in Beirut he had spoken about it in Aqaba with the king of Jordan Abdullah IItaking up the thread of the meeting a week earlier in Cyprus with the Hashemite monarch, the head of state of the island, Nikos Christodoulidesand the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. «The routes to Europe, which will be most popular, are those from Türkiye to Greece, by land or sea, or directly to Italy with boats. Migrants also head towards the island of Cyprus, which is closer, but then they get stuck or are sent back to Lebanon and Syria” explains the trafficker.
The cost tables are clear: 4,500 dollars from Türkiye to Greece, to then continue along the Balkan route, and seven thousand from the Turkish coasts to reach Italy. Most of the people fleeing the war include Syrians, who had already fled to Lebanon at the start of the conflict in their country. Many had found shelter in Dahiyehin the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, razed to the ground by the Israeli air force. Others had moved to the villages of the South, the first to be reached by the peremptory evacuation orders of the IDF, the armed forces of the Jewish State.
On the Corniche, the seafront of the Lebanese capital, entire families who have abandoned their homes are camped out. Some sleep inside small cars. «My husband died in Syria under a bombing and I moved to Beirut with my two little girls. Now I live on the sidewalk under this tarp. Give me at least a tent” is the lament of Fatwa, covered in a black veil from head to toe. She swears that her husband was not a fighter, but she found hospitality in the capital’s former Hezbollah fortress. «When I heard the sound of the first missiles, which hit the nearby houses» he says, «I didn’t think about it for a moment. I took my girls and ran away.” Fatwa would like to return to Syria, but he no longer has any relatives or even money. An older woman, a little further on, rolls on the ground and shouts “let what is happening to us happen to them”, referring to the Jewish people.
Many of the Syrians in Lebanon do not have documents and rely on traffickers to return home or continue their journey to Turkey and Europe. One of the bosses in Northern Lebanon is Al Kabbout – which means “the cricket” – and operates in the Wadi Khaled area, the gateway to Syria, north-east of Tripoli, a Sunni city. “In recent weeks the number of people who rely on us is very high” explains the trafficker interviewed by Panorama. «We are a network that extends all the way to Europe and everyone has control of a route». The illegal crossing of the Syrian border takes place on foot, «but then I make my people continue in small buses or mini vans up to Latakya. It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night: they pass as soon as I manage to bribe the guards” says Khaled. The border ones first and foremost, but the traffic routes continue to Turkey along two routes: one towards Idlib, the last stronghold of Al Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda and the other through the eastern region in the hands of the Kurds.
«We come to an agreement with theFree Syrian Army (moderate opposition group, ed.) or it Ypg (Kurdish armed party, ed.)” reveals the trafficker. «You can get from Lebanon to Idlib in just three days. It takes longer to cross the Turkish border, from a couple of weeks to a month because checks have increased. The complete package costs $3,500.” In Syria the hub of human traffickers is in Ayn al-Arab, north of Aleppo, Jindires represents the major transit point for Turkey equivalent to Sanliurfa from the Kurdish area. “Migrants are passed from trafficker to trafficker for the individual routes under their jurisdiction, but those who want also have an alternative route available” reveals the source Panorama. «He boards at Beirut airport to fly to Libya from where he makes the crossing by sea. The cost to get to Italy is three thousand dollars.” Khaled is convinced that traffic will increase, but the real nightmare is the attack that the Syrian regime is preparing on the last jihadist pocket of Idlib by concentrating troops. “They will all flee to Türkiye, two million people,” he declares without hesitation. «And many will continue to Europe». It is no coincidence that the Italian position, but also that of other EU states, aims to review the European Union strategy for Syria. The objective is to work with everyone, including the regime of Bashar al-Assad who won the war in an avalanche of deaths and rubble, «to create the conditions so that Syrian refugees can return to their homeland in a voluntary, safe and sustainable way » explains an Italian source. Our country’s support for the operation being carried out by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the decision to strengthen the diplomatic presence in Damascus should be interpreted in this sense.
Among the Syrians, who first took refuge in Lebanon and who are now fleeing to their country as the first stop towards the Old Continent, “there are certainly members of Al Nusra”, or the Al Qaeda of Idlib, according to a Lebanese source. Terrorists who aim to pass themselves off as refugees arriving in Italy on boats directly from Türkiye or via the longest Balkan route via Greece and the former Yugoslavia. “If this conflict is not resolved politically by reaching a truce,” he maintains Firas Al-Shoufi of the Recon-geopolitics Study Center in Beirut, “most of the displaced people will try to pass from Syria to Türkiye and will try the illegal route to Europe”. Tripoli, the Sunni “stronghold” of the North, is invaded by refugees from the South. The Lebanese government has postponed the opening of the school year to use the schools as reception centres. The classrooms have been transformed into makeshift rooms that house entire families.
Lebanese who have financial means, and perhaps already have a visa for Europe, board the ferry that leaves Tripoli three times a week arriving in Türkiye. Eleven hours of travel with the cabin costing $350. “There is always a long queue” explains the intelligence soldier at the entrance to the port. “Now they are preparing a new, faster ship to cover the crossing in just four hours.” The entrance to Al Jadida school is guarded by soldiers. Inside, the boy scouts distribute the daily rations, but no one wants to talk to a journalist. The director himself makes it clear that they are already fed up with refugees, especially Syrians. The official numbers of displaced people in public centers leave no doubt: in Tripoli and its surroundings there are 16 thousand, but 10 thousand are Syrians. The real figure of those who have found hospitality in the area or can pay for an apartment would be 150 thousand people. “The Sunnis are afraid that there are also members of Hezbollah who could be bombed by the Israelis” explains the Italian language teacher Maher Awad. “And then there is a fear of a confessional change in favor of the Shiites.” The volunteers who distribute meals in the classrooms transformed into dormitories forbid us from taking photographs of the displaced Shiites. «Once published, hatred is unleashed on social media» they explain. The most benevolent comment is “it suits him”.
