The arrivals hall at Beirut airport. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
General Security issued a statement Monday prohibiting any Syrian citizen from re-entering Lebanon via the airport if they are headed to Syria, unless they possess a foreign residency permit with a minimum validity of six months.
The statement said: "Violators will be sent back on the same flight they arrived on."
Lebanon currently hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrians, including more than 755,000 registered with the United Nations. Lebanese officials frequently cite the refugee crisis as a major burden on the country's economy and infrastructure.
Some Lebanese political factions argue that humanitarian aid provided by the U.N. and other NGOs incentivizes Syrians to remain in Lebanon.
The pressure for repatriation has grown since March 6, when sectarian violence erupted in Syria — the deadliest since the country's political shift — resulting in massacres, particularly in Alawite-majority coastal areas. The U.N. says more than 21,000 Syrians have since fled to Lebanon.
