Lebanese General Security Saturday organized the voluntary return of 621 Syrian refugees to their homeland from various places across Lebanon, The Daily Star reported.
The displaced Syrians set off at about 6 a.m. in buses accompanied by General Security personnel, in coordination with UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
The returnees had gathered at meeting points in Tripoli, Abboudieh, Nabatieh, Sidon, Beirut, Burj Hammoud, Al-Qaa and the Masnaa border crossing.
General Security has been coordinating with Syrian authorities to transport refugees who are willing to return to Syria, since May 2018.
In late March, the agency announced that some 170,000 Syrian refugees had returned since December 2017. The number included those who returned in General Security-organized trips and those who made the journey 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)
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