Lebanon says 330 refugees return to Syria

By Naim Burjawi

BEIRUT (AA) – Some 330 Syrian refugees returned to Syria from Lebanon on Saturday, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The broadcaster said the returnees were the second batch of Syrian refugees to have voluntarily departed the town of Arsal, north east of Beirut, to Syria.

Last week, Lebanon said it had secured the return of 511 Syrian refugees to their home country in coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the first time in three years.

The Lebanese government plans to return 15,000 Syrian refugees to Syria every month, but the scheme was met with criticism from the United Nations, which says that security in Syria has not yet been restored.

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, about 900,000 of whom are registered at UNHCR.

Most of the refugees suffer from tough living conditions, especially with the exacerbation of the Lebanese economic crisis on one hand and the global economic crisis on the other.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar