11 March 2017

BEIRUT: Money transfer shops are a ubiquitous sight in Beirut, part of the chaotic jumble of the capitals streets. Yet these Western Union and MoneyGram shops operate as a lifeline for Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are largely unable to open bank accounts in the country.Without bank transfers, many rely on services to wire money to family members still inside Syria, some of whom live under Daesh (ISIS) and other extremist groups.

However, over the past week General Security has begun a clampdown on operations that send money to Syria in Beiruts Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, Corniche al-Mazraa and Hamra neighborhoods. Days later, many of them remain firmly closed.

Six Lebanese nationals were released Thursday after security forces raided 16 transfer shops accused of wiring installments totaling upward of $20 million to the extremist militant group in Syria.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim Friday discussed the recent crackdown on money exchange shops with a delegation from the Money Exchange Union.

The delegation, headed by Money Exchange Union chief Elias Srour, tackled the recent raids conducted by the agency. However, a statement issued by General Security gave little detail on the content of the meeting and simply said talks highlighted the agencys efforts to combat terrorism, particularly the financing of terrorist organizations.

Despite the recent spate of closures, it is an issue that has been ongoing for years and cuts to the heart of the challenges faced by many of the over 1 million Syrians in Lebanon since the start of the crisis, now on the eve of its sixth anniversary.

This has been happening for years and amounts [to] much more than $20 million, speculated an employee of one of the closed money transfer shops in the Hamra neighborhood, who asked not to give his name. Its about time they started going after this.

Many Syrians come to transfer places to send money [to their families], said another employee, who was forthcoming about his clientele. A lot of money transfer shops opened up business because of this, taking advantage of the situation because banks wont let Syrians open accounts in Lebanon.

While there is no formal law that bars Syrians from opening bank accounts in Lebanon, the obstacles are significant. The Lebanese government has placed significant restrictions and checks on the banking sector when it comes to accounts for Syrian nationals out of fear they will be used to contribute to fundamentalist Islamist groups in the neighboring country.

According to a report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S.-based think tank, from 2015 onwards, transfers to Syria were often received in areas known to be a funding, logistical and smuggling hub for foreign terrorist fighters and terrorist organizations.

With international sanctions already in place against dealing with Syria and significant penalties already in place for institutions seen to be funding and assisting internationally designated terrorist groups, Lebanese financial institutions dont want to bear the brunt of any consequences should they be directly or indirectly linked to the nearby violence. A small handful of Syrian nationals were able to open bank accounts, after months of vetting, but are only able to handle their money in Lebanese pounds and not U.S. dollars.

So for Syrians in Lebanon who wanted to send money back home, transfers were their only option if they could not go themselves.

I have to go to Syria at least once a month to deliver money to my family, a customer at a Beirut cellphone store told The Daily Star, something that can represent a significant undertaking as routes in some areas are often closed by fighting.

We have a lot of Syrians sending money through us, an employee of a cellphone shop in Hamra that provides Western Union money transfer services told The Daily Star. So a lot of Syrians will transfer money to their families in other countries.

Western Union, one of Lebanons most popular money transfer services, does operate inside Syria but only in Damascus, Homs and Tartous. It has no official offices outside regime-held areas. The company and others do however operate some stores in Syria through licensed independent operations. On top of geographical barriers, there are also limits to the amount of money that can be sent capped at between $5,000 and $10,000.

With the formal options limited or unusable for anyone trying to send money to family outside of regime-held areas in Syria, the only other recourse is using unofficial networks of couriers to transfer money by informal channels.

There is a network of taxi drivers that we trust who go to Syria, said a Syrian national with family in Raqqa, Daeshs de facto capital. Once there, they hand [money] over to bus drivers they have connections with. According to him, the bus drivers are from the area and for a cut will carry the cash to the recipient. The service takes around a week.

He said that people usually send large quantities at a time but could send as little as $300-$400 through these services.

They are very secretive and only deal with a select few. Most of them pose as simple money exchange agencies, but they would have representatives in areas controlled by Daesh in Syria that would help them get the money there, the source from Raqqa said.

While the transfer of large sums of money to fundamentalist organizations such as Daesh remains a risk, for average Syrian nationals already faced with work restrictions and few opportunities in their host country of Lebanon there remains little choice but use the informal services in order to help their families.

Copyright The Daily Star 2017.