In crisis-hit Lebanon, Syrian refugees kidnapped for ransom

Mohammad* is thirty years old, with a finely chiselled beard and dark eyes which, despite their youth, have already seen their share of hardship. The Syrian refugee has been living in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city and the poorest of the Mediterranean basin since he fled the war-torn suburbs of Aleppo in 2011. Like everyone else in Tripoli, Mohammad has long dreamed of leaving for Europe – especially since the police had confiscated his passport and threatened to deport him to Syria. “I had contacted a smuggler to forge me a new passport and fly to Germany via Turkey,” he told The New…

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