Lebanese army soldiers disperse demonstrators in Tripoli, North Lebanon, April 2020. (Credit: Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP/File photo)
The Lebanese Army said on Monday that it had prevented 850 Syrians from informally entering Lebanon in the past week.
"As part of the fight against human trafficking and illegal immigration across land borders, an army unit thwarted, on various dates over the past week, attempts by around 700 Syrians to infiltrate the border between Lebanon and Syria," the army said in a statement.
Numerous people- and drug-smuggling networks operate in the porous border between Lebanon and Syria, where state authority is limited.
According to official estimates, Lebanon is host to two million Syrian refugees, of whom some 830,000 are registered with the UN.
The fate of these refugees is a regular source of controversy in Lebanon. The government regularly calls for their repatriation and several ministers recently visited Damascus to discuss the issue.
Rights groups have criticized the return of Syrian refugees as potentially dangerous.