Lebanese army turns back 1,200 Syrians seeking to enter Lebanon illegally

The Lebanese army announced Thursday that it had turned back some 1,200 Syrians who had tried to enter Lebanon illegally since the start of the week, a phenomenon which has increased recently. The Lebanese army “prevented around 1,200 Syrians from crossing the Lebanese-Syrian border over the past week”, according to a military statement. On August 23, the army announced that it had turned back 700 Syrians who were trying to enter the country illegally in Lebanon.

“The number of soldiers mobilized is not enough”

Lebanon has the highest ratio of refugees per capita in the world according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), with nearly two million Syrians on its soil according to official estimates. Nearly 830,000 of them are registered with the UN.

“The Syrian-Lebanese border is porous and the number of soldiers mobilized is not enough,” a security source told AFP. “Most Syrians come to Lebanon in the hope of finding work in the face of the unprecedented deterioration of living conditions in their country,” she added. Syria has been ravaged since 2011 by a war that has killed more than half a million people and forced millions to flee.

Unprecedented economic collapse

Lebanon welcomed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the early years of the conflict, before denying them access to its territory in early 2015. Since then, many Syrians have resorted to smugglers to cross the border. Lebanon is experiencing an unprecedented economic collapse, as is neighboring Syria, where the government lifted fuel subsidies in mid-August, affecting a population already affected by more than twelve years of war.

Some Syrians go to Lebanon in the hope of reaching Europe. On August 12, the army announced that it had arrested 130 Syrians and four Lebanese who were trying to reach Europe illegally via the Mediterranean from northern Lebanon.