The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hundreds of Syrian refugees returned to their home country Thursday in the latest return trip organized by Lebanese General Security. “General Security, in coordination with the UNHCR, ensured the voluntary return of 779 Syrian refugees from various parts of Lebanon to Syrian territory through the Masnaa, Abboudieh and Al-Zamrani border crossings,” a statement from General Security said at the end of the day.
In the morning, the state-run National News Agency reported that about 70 people had gathered at the Kamel Youssef Jaber Cultural and Social Center in Nabatieh, accompanied by Army and General Security personnel, as well as representatives of the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.
The Health Ministry provided vaccinations for the children before the group boarded two buses provided by General Security and passed through the Masnaa border crossing, the NNA said.
In the Bekaa Valley, 250 returnees left a number of refugee camps in the Arsal area and assembled in Wadi Hmayyed, before passing through the Al-Zamarani border crossing into Syria.
In Sidon, 44 people had gathered at Sidon Municipal Stadium.
Another group had met at the Abboudieh border crossing in Akkar, where the NNA said General Security was checking the names of those present against an official roster of those who had applied to return.
According to the NNA, returnees waiting at the Abboudieh crossing said they were happy to be returning to Syria and denied that they had been pressured to go back. They also thanked General Security for providing them with “all necessities needed” for their return.
When General Security announced the return Wednesday, the agency said returnees would also be gathering in Tripoli and Burj Hammoud and at the Masnaa border crossing. General Security released a statement Tuesday rejecting claims by a Human Rights Watch representative that Syrian refugees were being pressured to return “before the appropriate time.”
General Security countered that “all returnees have done so voluntarily, either individually or in voluntary return trips organized by General Security and in coordination with the competent Syrian authorities, in the presence of UNHCR representatives, who make sure that the refugees are returning voluntarily and willingly.”
Earlier this month, General Security announced that over 80,000 Syrian refugees had returned home from Lebanon since July, and that 7,670 did so through voluntary trips organized by the agency.