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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has paid tribute to the 47 Irish soldiers who died while serving on peacekeeping missions in south Lebanon at the Irish UN memorial in Tibnin on Sunday.
Mr Martin was in Lebanon on an official visit which coincided with the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. He was accompanied by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney and Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Seán Clancy.
“Peacekeeping is an important part of the work we do; we endeavour to bring light to dark parts of the world,” said Capt Hughe Forde at the memorial. “The comrades who we honour today made the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for peace.”
The names of the three Irish soldiers who died in south Lebanon during the month of May, as well as one soldier who died during May while on a UN mission in the Congo, were read out by Capt Forde.
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Mr Martin, Mr Coveney and Lt Gen Clancy then laid wreaths at the memorial in Tibnin. The mountainous village near the Lebanese-Israeli border was the location of the main camp for Irish troops before it moved to its current location in al-Tir near Bint Jbeil.
Local leaders from Tibnin were present at the remembrance ceremony. “We are 44 years together,” said Abdo Haddad, the muktar (leader) of the Christian community in Tibnin. “We feel safer because of the Irish here.”
As part of the ceremony, Fr Rev Vodek, chaplain for the Irish Polish Battalion that serves with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), led prayers and Irish peacekeepers raised the national flag.
After the wreath-laying ceremony, the Irish delegation was hosted at the community hall of St George Church, the Catholic church which lies beside the memorial.
Prior to visiting Tibnin, Mr Martin, Mr Coveney and Lt Gen Seán Clancy met the new Force Commander of Unifil, Maj Gen Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz, at the Unifil headquarters in Naquora. Maj Gen Sáenz succeeded Maj Gen Stefano Del Col in February.
During the visit Mr Martin acknowledged the lengthy delays faced by Syrian refugees seeking resettlement in Ireland. A total of 171 refugees, who the Irish government offered to resettle as part of a commitment to the UN refugee agency in 2019, remain in Lebanon with no set departure date.
A spokesman for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said the 39 Syrian families would be waiting “months” for resettlement to Ireland, amid shortages of accommodation. The department has said that timelines for resettlements of Syrian refugees have not been affected by the Ukrainian refugee crisis, which is being dealt with through a separate programme.
Mr Martin said: “Two and a half or three years is too long for refugees to wait [for resettlement].”
A group of 76 Syrian refugees who were interviewed in September 2021 after their original interview was cancelled in March 2020 were resettled from Lebanon to Ireland earlier this month.
Lebanon is facing what has been described by the World Bank as one of the worst economic crises in the world. According to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, more than 90 per cent of Syrian refugees are now living in extreme poverty in Lebanon and face unprecedented levels of hardship.
Fr William Stuart, an Irish priest who runs a school for Syrian refugee children in Tyre in south Lebanon, has said the education system is facing collapse. “With the political stalemate following the elections and inflation at 215 per cent, we are fast approaching the time when the state schools will close [due] to lack of money to pay teachers.”
Zalokh Hassan Nassan (39) is one of the Syrian refugees who has faced lengthy delays in their resettlement to Ireland. She fled her home in northern Syria in 2012, as war spread across the country. She is now living in Nabatieh in south Lebanon with her children Hamreen (15), Nisreen (13) and Ayham (8).
She waited more than 1½ years for her resettlement interview with Irish officials to be rescheduled after it was cancelled in March 2020 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Since her interview was conducted in Beirut in September 2021, her departure has been delayed on multiple occasions.
“Our flight was supposed to leave on April 28th but that was postponed,” she said.
The department denies that a flight was scheduled for Nassan and her family then.