(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Lebanese General Security announced Friday that another series of voluntary Syrian refugee returns will take place early next week from various areas across Lebanon, the Daily Star reported.
The voluntary return trips will depart Monday starting at 6 a.m. from locations in Abboudieh, Al-Qaa, Burj Hammoud, Masnaa, Nabatieh, Sidon and Tripoli.
General Security has since May 2018 been facilitating voluntary return trips for refugees signing up to return to their country.
The agency announced in late March that over 170,000 Syrian refugees had returned to their country from Lebanon since December 2017. The total number - 172,046 - includes not only those who took part in voluntary return trips organized by General Security but also those who made the trip back on their own.
The conflict has displaced more than 5 million Syrians outside the country, the United Nations says, with more than half displaced to Turkey and most of the rest split between Lebanon and Jordan
Arsal's border camps are one of the largest along the Syrian border were about 80,000 Syrian refugees live in 117 camps near the Lebanese border with Syria.
Thousands of Syrians are unable to return because their homes were destroyed in the fighting, or because they fear military conscription.
A survey made by Zaman al-Wasl on a random sample of refugees in the camps of Arsal, including 210 refugees, showed that 92% of the refugees had refused to return, while 8% had agreed to return to the towns that they described as safe in the western Qalamoun.
Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 560,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced. (Zaman Al Wasl, The Daily Star)
Zaman Al Wasl
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