A young Syrian refugee boy plays alone in an abandoned camp in the village of Arsal, in the Bekaa, on Oct, 1st, 2025. (Credit: Zeina Antonios/L'Orient-Le Jour)
All that remains of the 180 Syrian refugee camps in the Baalbeck district village of Arsal are empty alleys, abandoned concrete structures, garbage and rubble.The village is about 20 kilometers from the border with Syria, which is where its thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to. Starting in 2012, Arsal, a town with 50,000 residents, welcomed nearly 140,000 people fleeing the civil war next door. A sea of white tents for more than a decade, Arsal emptied out overnight after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Dec. 8, 2024.Nearly a year after the departure of what, according to some figures, was 90 percent of Arsal's refugee population, Mayor Mounir Hojeiri says now his town is left trying to rebuild amid the ecological and economic damage caused by the chaotic mass exodus into Lebanon. In the news Fourth convoy of...
All that remains of the 180 Syrian refugee camps in the Baalbeck district village of Arsal are empty alleys, abandoned concrete structures, garbage and rubble.The village is about 20 kilometers from the border with Syria, which is where its thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to. Starting in 2012, Arsal, a town with 50,000 residents, welcomed nearly 140,000 people fleeing the civil war next door. A sea of white tents for more than a decade, Arsal emptied out overnight after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Dec. 8, 2024.Nearly a year after the departure of what, according to some figures, was 90 percent of Arsal's refugee population, Mayor Mounir Hojeiri says now his town is left trying to rebuild amid the ecological and economic damage caused by the chaotic mass exodus into Lebanon. In the news Fourth convoy of...