Salam receives UNHCR chief on farewell visit

BEIRUT — Prime Minister Nawaf Salam received the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ivo Freijsen, who is soon to leave his post, at the Grand Serail on Wednesday.

This meeting comes a day after a "voluntary return" convoy of 71 Syrian refugees and migrants left Lebanon to return to Syria. The UNHCR oversaw this return, which took place via the Masnaa border crossing in eastern Bekaa.

Salam received the UNHCR director in Lebanon as part of a "farewell visit," according to the prime minister's official X account. The two officials discussed U.N. organization's "efforts" toward the return of Syrians to their country, particularly "in cooperation with the Lebanese authorities."

These "return convoys" of which Tuesday was the first, are part of a broader process for which more than 17,000 refugees have so far expressed their interest to join, one month after its launch on July 1.

To encourage refugees to return to a home country that is still unstable — with periodic outbursts of violence, both sectarian and from Israeli bombardment — UNHCR is offering participants financial compensation paid both at the departure and upon the convoy's arrival, thus responding to a long-standing demand by Lebanese authorities and political leaders for aid "outside Lebanon."