Report: Syria Bans Arsal-Based Refugees from Returning Home for Battling Regime
Several hundred Syrian refugees who had been sheltering in the northeastern border town of Arsal, where the army and jihadists have been fighting, crossed back into Syria on Friday, a nun assisting them said.
Sister Agnes, a nun based in Syria, told Agence France Presse a first group of 350 of some 1,700 refugees who left the town of Arsal yesterday passed through the Masnaa border crossing back into Syria on Friday.
The group set out from Arsal on Wednesday after a ceasefire between jihadists and army troops, following clashes that began on Saturday and have killed 17 soldiers and, reportedly, dozens of civilians.
The departure appeared to be the first time a group of refugees has left Lebanon en masse to return to Syria.
Sister Agnes, who is close to the Syrian regime, said a number of refugees living in Arsal had requested help to return home before the fighting in the town began.
They faced difficulties because some of them had failed to do their military service in Syria and some also entered Lebanon illegally.
They arrived at the Masnaa crossing on Thursday, but were unable to cross because of administrative difficulties, including lack of identity documents for babies born in Lebanon.
Most of those leaving come from the Qalamoun region, just across the border with Arsal, including from the town of Qara, where Sister Agnes's convent is based.
She told AFP on Thursday that an additional 3,000 refugees in Arsal were hoping to leave for Syria.
But earlier in the day, media reports said Syrian authorities prevented a convoy of refugees from returning to their homes on claims that they are the relatives of fighters battling the regime.
According to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) around 1,700 Syrian refugees, who left the northeastern town of Arsal, back to their home of origin were prevented from entering Syrian territories through the Masnaa border crossing.
They are currently on the international highway between Lebanon and Syria.
“The convoy that includes women, children and elderly was barred from entering Syria for carrying relatives of fighters clashing with the regime in the Syrian Qalamoun and on outskirts of Arsal,” VDL said.
“They should try to return through the same illegal crossings they used to enter Lebanon,” the radio station quoted Syrian authorities as saying.
On Thursday, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said that “refugees with legal status can leave to Syria via al-Masnaa,” as the state-run National News Agency reported that the refugees were banned from returning for not carrying the necessary legal documents.
At least 47,000 Syrian refugees have taken shelter in Arsal, a town where many residents sympathize with the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad.
But their presence and reports that some of the militants fighting the army since Saturday emerged from Syrian refugee camps in Arsal, have raised tensions, including with the neighboring town of al-Labweh.
More than a million Syrian refugees have flooded into Lebanon since the conflict began in March 2011.
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Source: Agence France Presse
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