At least dozens of Syrian refugees returned to their home country Monday in the latest in a series of voluntary returns organized by Lebanese General Security.
Syrian state-run media agency SANA reported Monday afternoon that groups of refugees had crossed the border into Syria through the Abboudieh and Masnaa crossings, and were being taken to their homes, in areas that had been “liberated” from terrorists.
At 6 a.m., the returnees had gathered at various meeting points across the country, in Abboudieh, Al-Qaa, Burj Hammoud, Masnaa, Nabatieh, Sidon and Tripoli, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported. There they boarding buses and set off under the supervision of General Security officials and members of the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR.
The NNA reported that about 40 refugees had left from both Nabatieh and Sidon, but did not specify the number of refugees who had departed from the other locations.
Zaman al-Wasl sources said at least 400 refugees who fled the town of Qusayr in Homs province had obtained a security permission by the regime intelligence to get back home after years of displacement in Arsal camps.
Since May 2018, General Security has been registering Syrian refugees who are willing to return and organizing the transportation back to their country in coordination with the authorities there, who in some cases may reject a potential returnee.
The agency announced in late March that 172,046 Syrian refugees had returned to their country from Lebanon since December 2017.
The number 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 Syrian war 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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