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Lebanese TV broadcasts ‘racist’ song against Syrian refugees

April 26, 2018 at 2:10 pm

Children are seen at a refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon on 21 March, 2017 [Ratib Al Safadi/Anadolu Agency]

A Lebanese TV channel has broadcast a song containing “racist” lyrics against Syrian refugees. The song was broadcast a few days ago by independent TV station Al-Jadeed.

The lyrics mocked the refugees for renting uninhabitable buildings and having many children. They also alleged that the Syrians were making the Lebanese a minority in their own country, and claimed that they control everything.

Lebanese journalist Fatima Othman criticised the song and the TV channel which broadcast it. She described both as racist and said that the incident was completely immoral and does not represent the Lebanese people.

The song coincided with a Human Rights Watch report which accuses the Lebanese authorities of expelling hundreds of Syrian refugees from their residences with neither justification nor providing them with any alternative shelter.

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