Lebanese Living in UAE Fear Deportation

Every week from Friday morning until Sunday morning, Lebanese families living in the United Arab Emirates for their jobs experience “a period of tranquility.” This time is the official weekly holiday there, but the main reason for their calm is that Emirati state security observes this holiday. On these days, no calls will be made informing Lebanese families that they are to be deported from the UAE for alleged security reasons.

Lebanese there consider these days off to be more than “a relaxing holiday” — it is a “break from the daily angst” which hovers over them during the work week. This anxiety stems from their shared fear: at any moment, they may be contacted by the police department and told that they are being expelled.

With the advent of the new year, the campaign of expelling Lebanese, most of whom are Shiites, will have stretched on for nearly four years. The campaign began quietly when Emirati state security heard that Hezbollah had welcomed two Emiratis into their stronghold in Beirut’s southern outskirts who plotted to commit terrorist acts against the Emirati regime. There are no traceable documents confirming this lead, which of course Hezbollah denies. However, the deportation campaign has recently developed into something far more sophisticated than a mere reaction to an alleged threat, whether or not that threat is real.

Many of the grievances regarding this campaign revolve around the fact that it is conducted largely by police without legal justifications or procedures, and happens whether the deportees are individuals or entire families. This has made Lebanese families' lives in the UAE “fraught with anxiety,” due to “the likely scenario they will be deported at any moment” — that is, except on Thursdays and Fridays. Even worse, the psychological symptoms of this anxiety affect children, who hear about UAE authorities suddenly deporting their relatives and worry that the same fate will befall their loved ones without warning.