Lebanon minister: Syria killing some returning refugees
600 views · Published 2 December 2018 · 2:45 · Indexed 24 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(27 Nov 2018) Some Syrian refugees who have returned home from Lebanon have been killed, detained or forced to join the military, leading to a slowdown in the return of Syrians residing in Lebanon, a Lebanese cabinet minister said on Tuesday. Minister of State for Refugees Affairs Mouin Merhebi told the Associated Press that so far about 12,000 Syrian refugees had returned home from Lebanon since June. That is a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands who fled to Lebanon to escape the civil war, which began in 2011. Merhebi's figures are much smaller than those released by Lebanon's General Security Directorate which says so far more than 87,000 have returned. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained. Merhebi, who is a harsh critic of the Syrian government, said some of those who have been registered as returned go back and forth between the two neighbouring countries. Syria's seven-year conflict has caused nearly half of the country's population to be displaced, with an estimated 6 million internally displaced and 5.6 million fleeing to neighbouring countries and Europe, and registering with the UN Refugee Agency. Merhebi said at the height of the war the number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon reached 1.2 million, or about a quarter of Lebanon's population. He added the number now was about 940,000, after some returned to Syria or were resettled in other countries. The Russian military said this month nearly 270,000 Syrian refugees had returned home in recent months. Moscow and the government in Damascus have been encouraging refugees to repatriate, arguing that the violence has subsided. Russia launched military operations to help Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2015, changing the tide of the war in his favour. Western governments have, however, argued that it's too early to encourage return. Rights groups and the UN fear refugees would face persecution returning to government-controlled areas in the absence of a comprehensive political agreement. Merhebi blasted the Shiite Hezbollah party that joined the war along with government forces in 2013, accusing them of preventing mostly Sunni residents from returning to their homes in villages and towns near the Lebanon border, part of what he called a plan for demographic change along mostly Shiite areas on the Lebanese side of the border. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/be1d38b9591552489a899075f1229b40
