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Published: November 5, 2022
Dozens of Syrian refugees headed to their homes on Saturday from eastern Lebanon in the second convoy in less than two weeks as Beirut attempts to organize a mass return of refugees to the war-torn country. The official Lebanese National News Agency said the "voluntary return" on Saturday included 330 Syrians who left from the eastern Bekaa Valley to the Qalamoun area in western Syria, where Qalamoun is located on the Lebanese border and has witnessed some of the worst battles in the ongoing Syrian conflict for 11 years.
On October 26, about 500 refugees returned to Syria, becoming the first group to return home in more than two years. After living in Lebanon for years, many Syrian refugees decided to return home after being affected by the country’s historic three-year economic collapse, which pushed three-quarters of Lebanese into poverty. Since the beginning of the economic crisis in late 2019, some Lebanese politicians have blamed refugees for the crisis.
Lebanon had also provided shelter to more than one million Syrian refugees, but many claim the number is much higher. The United Nations Refugee Agency recorded about 825,000 Syrians but stopped counting them in 2015 at the request of Lebanese authorities. Earlier this year, officials promoted a plan to repatriate 15,000 refugees monthly, which has not yet materialized.
In 2018, Lebanon began organizing "voluntary return" flights. Syrians would register to return, and then the list would be run by Syrian security officials to check if anyone on the list was wanted for arrest or considered a security threat to Damascus. Those names would be rejected and the original list reduced to the final names.
In the same context, returnees represent a small portion of the vast number of refugees who remained in Lebanon, as the United Nations confirms that Syria is not safe for mass return. Lebanese Acting Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar told reporters near the Syrian border on Saturday that the returnees had received assurances from Lebanese and Syrian authorities about their return. He added that the international community must encourage such returns, and if not, "they should be neutral in this case."
Additionally, return flights stopped in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, about 21,000 refugees returned to Syria in this way, according to Lebanese officials. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says at least 76,500 Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned from Lebanon since 2016, some on government-organized trips and others on their own. The conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half of the pre-war population of 23 million.
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