Syrians from Lebanon forced to pay a fortune to return home

A Syrian refugee, living in Sidon, southern Lebanon, covers her face on March 17, 2020. Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Hit hard by the economic and financial crisis in Lebanon, a large number of Syrians wish to return to their country.

But often prevented without valid reasons, they become victims of smugglers, intermediaries and unscrupulous officials who extract huge sums from them because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

Paul Khalifeh

Of

thousands of Syrians are stuck in Lebanon

for months after the border closure in mid-March due to

pandemic coronavirus

.

When travel between the two countries was restored, many wanted to return to Syria.

All that was needed was to take

the PCR test

for the virus, set by the Syrian authorities at $ 100 - a sum already very high when you consider that the average monthly salary of a civil servant is $ 20.

However, testimonies collected by RFI show that many Syrian nationals have been prevented, without valid reason, from returning to their country by the Syrian authorities.

Some have therefore hired the services of human smugglers, who sometimes charge $ 500 for the trip to Syria.

This normally costs less than $ 50.

Others claim to have been asked to repeat the PCR test several times, with advice to go to specific laboratories, otherwise the results will be refused.

Young Syrians born in Lebanon and wishing to be exempted from military service must also pay the sum of 2,500 dollars.

Because if they return to Syria without having completed this formality, they are called up for a service that has lasted, for some,

since the start of the war, in 2011

.

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  • Lebanon

  • Syria

  • Coronavirus

  • Refugees

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