Syrian refugees in Lebanon return to their country on Dec. 9, following the downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
"I want to return, but it doesn't happen overnight," said Amina al-Moqdah from the Bekaa Valley on April 24, 12 years since she first fled to Lebanon from Baraghiti in the Idlib province. Stigmatized as a relative of two brothers who disappeared in the prisons of the former regime, she fled her village of Harran al-Awamid in Eastern Ghouta, said goodbye to her job at the Interior Ministry, and her house, destroyed in a bombing. "The house and the job, these are the two big fears for returning," she stated.The return of Syrian refugees has been the mantra of Lebanese politicians for years, across the political spectrum, calling their presence in Lebanon a "burden" that the country can no longer bear. Estimated at 1.5 million in a country of about seven million inhabitants, Syrians who fled the Assad...
"I want to return, but it doesn't happen overnight," said Amina al-Moqdah from the Bekaa Valley on April 24, 12 years since she first fled to Lebanon from Baraghiti in the Idlib province. Stigmatized as a relative of two brothers who disappeared in the prisons of the former regime, she fled her village of Harran al-Awamid in Eastern Ghouta, said goodbye to her job at the Interior Ministry, and her house, destroyed in a bombing. "The house and the job, these are the two big fears for returning," she stated.The return of Syrian refugees has been the mantra of Lebanese politicians for years, across the political spectrum, calling their presence in Lebanon a "burden" that the country can no longer bear. Estimated at 1.5 million in a country of about seven million inhabitants, Syrians who fled the Assad...