Oct. 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Hundreds of Syrian refugees have begun to leave Lebanon to return to Syria as part of a repatriation plan criticized by international organizations in which they are expected to leave the country from different points, such as Arsal, Nabatiyé or Tripoli, about 15,000 people a month .
The outgoing Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, Héctor Hayar, announced on Tuesday that the gradual repatriation of Syrian refugees settled in Lebanon would be “voluntary and safe” in the face of numerous criticisms from different NGOs.
As reported by the General Security of Lebanon, at least 751 Syrian refugees will return to their country throughout the day, mainly from Arsal, a small mountainous town 124 kilometers northeast of Beirut, the capital, DPA has recorded.
“Returned Syrian citizens who were forcibly displaced from their homes and villages by armed terrorist gangs were provided with facilities through streamlined procedures, health services and their access to their safe villages and homes,” he said. director of the Dabousiyah border center, Fadi Issa, to the SANA news agency.
This return occurs within the framework of a plan by the outgoing government of Nayib Mikati, which provides for the repatriation of 15,000 refugees per month. This strategy has been questioned by several NGOs and international organizations that describe this exit as dangerous due to the violations of Human Rights in Syria.
This is the case of Amnesty International, which called on the Lebanese authorities in mid-October to stop the process, which “has been underway for four years, despite the fact that it is known that the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not in a position to make a free and informed decision about their return”.
“By enthusiastically facilitating these returns, the Lebanese authorities are knowingly putting these Syrian refugees at risk of appalling abuse and persecution upon their return to Syria,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Week.
The director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, declared at a press conference on Tuesday that Lebanon was not going to submit to “pressure”, while making it clear that “no refugee” was going to be “forced to be repatriated”, according to the newspaper ‘L’Orient Le Jour’.
Lebanon’s acting prime minister, Nayib Mikati, had already threatened in June to expel the Syrian refugees, arguing that the country “no longer has the capacity to shoulder the burden”, in the midst of a deep economic and social crisis that has made sound the alarms at the international level.
The war in Syria has caused nearly 5.7 million people to flee to other countries in the region, including some 840,000 who have crossed the border with Lebanon, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
However, the Lebanese authorities estimate that the true figure is closer to 1.5 million people, adding to the approximately 480,000 Palestinian refugees who live in the country. The largest concentration of Syrian refugees is in the Bekaa Valley (east), near the border with Syria.
