Voluntary return of around 100 Syrian refugees from the Bekaa to Syria

More than a hundred Syrian refugees who were in Lebanon returned to their country on Tuesday, as part of a voluntary return coordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.N. migration agency (IOM), and the General Security Directorate, L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in the region reported.

Logistical preparations began as early as 5 a.m. at the secondary school and the al-Nahda club in Bar Elias. After a thorough inspection of their luggage, the refugees boarded buses to travel to the Lebanese-Syrian border.

More than six million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Lebanon, which hosts about 1.5 million Syrians for a population of around four million Lebanese, is the country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. At the beginning of July, nearly 11,000 people had already registered to return to Syria, while the Lebanese government is aiming for "between 200,000 and 400,000 returns" by the end of the year, according to Social Affairs Minister Hanine Sayyed.

Until recently, U.N. agencies said that Syria did not offer safe conditions for mass returns, particularly because of the risk of persecution under the former Assad regime, which systematically imprisoned men who had not performed their military service. But since coming to power, the new Syrian government, led by an Islamist coalition, claims that all Syrians can return to their country.