Only 400 Syrian refugees left Lebanon on Thursday from the town of Arsal to eastern Qalamoun, after the registration of some 3,000 people in the lists of those wishing to return to Syria.
However, Syrian authorities refused to grant hundreds of refugees security approvals to return, under the pretext of “non-coordination with the Syrian government.”
This move comes amid calls by the Lebanese authorities for the return the displaced, whose presence in Lebanon have put heavy economic burdens on the country.
On Wednesday, President Michel Aoun underlined the need to find the necessary solutions to the crisis of the displaced, hoping that the Arab and international communities would “help us achieve this goal and help the displaced return home as soon as possible.”
The National News Agency (NNA) reported that a convoy carrying a group of Syrian refugees left Arsal on Thursday morning bound for Al-Zamarani crossing to return to Syria.
The convoy was the first following tensions between the Lebanese authorities and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), which was blamed for discouraging the displaced from leaving to Syria. But the efforts that resulted in the registration of three thousand Syrians to leave collided with the Syrian regime’s refusal to give security approvals for all those registered, hence decreasing the number of departures from 3000 to 500, which then reduced to 400 people.
