(Zmaan Al Wasl)- About 250 refugees have voluntary returned to Syrian from Lebanon, the Lebanese General Security said Thursday.
Ten buses carrying 150 refugees to Qusayr town and 150 more to Damascus suburbs crossed the border into Syria through Masnaa crossings.
The Mediterranean country of around 4.5 million people says it hosts some 1.5 million Syrians, of which nearly a million are UN-registered refugees.
Lebanese politicians routinely blame the country's economic and other woes on Syrian refugees and the government has ratcheted up the pressure to send them back.
Also, the labor ministry is cracking down on foreign workers without a permit, a move activists say largely targets Syrians.
Rights groups have decried measures to make the lives of refugees increasingly difficult.
In 2019, the Lebanese army destroyed a further 350 structures in the north of the country and arrested dozens of people for lacking residency documents, humanitarian groups said.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 380 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighboring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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