Lebanon: from bad to worse

Lebanese Centre for Human Rights. Prison conditions have been severely affected by the crisis, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. With respect to health, access to doctors is now more difficult. In the past, there were four or five doctors per prison, present during the day and in the evening. Today, there is only one doctor, who visits once a week, if they have time. Even this limited access is not available in some prisons. A judge recently requested that a prison doctor conduct a medical examination. The doctor could not find the time, in part due to a lack of means. His salary is exceptionally low (around 50 USD per month), and he only has time to sign prescriptions during visits, with no time to tend to emergencies.

Access to medication is also extremely complicated. They are supplied by international and local organisations or families, not by the State. Several organisations have joined forces to provide help. They have set up an emergency fund for families and an e-mail address shared by all the organisations and the authorities in charge of health care in prison.

Mentally ill prisoners do not receive adequate care. A doctor for one prison once told us that some people receive a treatment that has not been administered in over 25 years. In fact, it only serves to pacify the patients, not treat them.

 The number of deaths in detention is rising. In 2022, there were 33 deaths, compared to five or six per year before the crisis. Some people die because the transfer to certain hospitals takes too long. Others are not transferred at all due to the high cost of these transfers.

There are no longer enough means for emergencies. Overcrowding leads to many people with immunity problems being mixed in with the rest of the prison population, which exercerbates their illnesses. Many communicable diseases develop in detention, such as tuberculosis and scabies. In fact, a scabies epidemic broke out recently in a women’s prison, and medication was insufficient. Everything had to be changed, cleaned and burned. NGOs took matters in hand and helped change all the mattresses in the facility. The solutions we find are always temporary, and that is not enough.

The meals supplied by the authorities are of very poor quality, and some people refuse to eat them. Social workers reported to us that women in the Tripoli prison only eat twice a week because they refuse to eat unhealthy products. During the pandemic, families could bring food, but that is no longer allowed. Food products can be purchased from the prison commissary, but this is not possible if the families do not have the necessary financial resources.

We also noted a water problem recently: prisons located in the districts¹ do not have continuous access to water. The women’s prison went without water for four days. People cannot hydrate themselves or wash, resulting in worsened health conditions.

CLDH. Police stations and gendarmerie centres have become real prisons for civilians. In the past, they would be held there for a few days or a week at most before being transferred to prisons. Now, though, we see people who have been held there for over a year, even a year and a half, due to insufficient space in prisons. And people convicted by civil courts are also incarcerated in military prisons due to a lack of space.

The police stations lack space: the rooms are small and can only hold up to seven people. The prisoners held in these facilities have to sleep in shifts: while one person sleeps five hours, the other must stay awake, and vice versa. The situation for minors is catastrophic. Families and NGOs have severely restricted access to the premises. These facilities were not designed or constructed to imprison people for several months or years.

Transfers also represent serious issues. Internal Security Forces are not able to ensure court transfers for everyone who needs them. This means that some people spend days, weeks, or even months waiting in police custody. In Baabda, for example, 80 prisoners must appear before the examining magistrate for criminal cases on the same day. Since this is not feasible, some will be judged by the criminal court. But the sessions of this court are often adjourned for months at a time, and waiting times for new sessions are six months or more. While the accused waits, they are not released: they remain in detention.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis, the process of the Committee in charge of sentence adjustments has also significantly contributed to exacerbating overpopulation. The Committee usually demands a psychological report of the prisoner before taking a decision. If no doctor is available, the case could be stalled for several months. The judge cannot take a decision to adjust a sentence without this report. These restrictions are common and stop cases from moving forwards. When people who are blocked are unable to contact NGOs or lawyers, if no one informs us, nothing moves forward.

CLDH. In Lebanon, the prison governor can appoint a prisoner as the ‘leader’ of a cell or a facility unit. This person decides, for example, if someone can go outside for a breath of fresh air, access medical treatment or see their relatives. It is a highly arbitrary system that reinforces inequalities. Religious denominations play a key role. In the Roumieh prison, each building brings together people of the same faith. Visiting days are scheduled by denomination in order to avoid conflict. The leader is free to organise this as they choose. With the crisis, the informal system has grown stronger, and the situation is deteriorating.

It has led to numerous discriminations in women’s prisons. Migrant women do not have the same rights as Lebanese women, Foreign women prisoners sleep in poorer conditions and must cook and clean for the others. This is arranged by the designated leader.

 The proportion of foreign prisoners in Lebanon reached 35%. The language barrier and the lack of translation make their situation particularly complicated. Fines, bails and medical fees have significantly increased for foreigners.

Once a foreigner has served their sentence, they are transferred to General Security before being released. But the immigration police are very arbitrary. In practice, they are the ones who decide when a foreigner can be released. We are following the progress of a migrant woman from Cameroon whose story serves as a powerful example. She was sentenced to one year of prison, and she served her time. But now, she is required to pay a fine of 10 million Lebanese pounds¹ for her release. She does not have the means.

In some cases, bails for release can amount to 300 million Lebanese pounds. It is often the NGOs that pay, when possible. When sufficient means cannot be secured, people are stuck. Furthermore, they often do not have access to their personal resources, which does not help matters. When the person is authorised to return home, NGOs such as ours pay for the plane ticket in some cases and work with the country to obtain a laissez-passer if the person no longer has a passport.