Lebanon begins repatriation of Syria refugees in first since covid

Several buses of Syrian refugee families were repatriated Wednesday morning from different areas in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports.

According to the NNA, the intelligence branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) accompanied a bus Wednesday morning from Nabatieh to the General Security branch at the Masnaa border crossing on the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley.

Caretaker Social Affairs Minister, Hector Hajjar, told that the majority of the returnees from Arsal, a town in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, are going back to the Qalamoun, a region bordering the border with Lebanon, on the Syrian slopes of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, report added.

“Those whose houses there were destroyed have their tents to live in,” Hajjar said.

READ: Human rights organisations warn of Syrian refugees in Lebanon being returned ‘by force’