The Lebanese Minister of Displaced, Issam Charafeddine, announced the resumption of “voluntary return” trips for Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Syria, starting next week.

The official site of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, and Lebanese media outlets, reported on Thursday, May 9, that the first of these trips will start next Tuesday and will consist of two thousand refugees, to be followed by a second convoy a week later.

Charafeddine expressed his readiness to visit Syria if officially assigned, “to discuss the issue of the return of displaced Syrians and refugees.”

Sources in the Lebanese General Security clarified to Al-Jadeed TV channel that the “displaced” (referring to the refugees) will return with their livestock to Syria, and that the return convoys of the “displaced” to Syria consist of between 200 and 300 displaced people, and the talk about two thousand displaced is not correct.

This step was preceded, on Thursday, by the Lebanese General Security demanding Syrians who are in violation of the entry and residency regulations, to directly head to the border departments and centers to facilitate the regularization of their status and departure from Lebanese territories, under the threat of taking appropriate legal actions against those who do not leave.

The statement by the directorate emphasized Lebanese citizens not to employ, harbor, or secure housing for Syrians residing illegally in Lebanon, under penalty of organizing administrative and judicial control records against violators. It also prohibited Syrians registered with the UNHCR from engaging in any paid work outside the designated work sectors.

According to the statement, the operations of (voluntary and safe) return for Syrian nationals wishing to return to their country will be resumed under the sponsorship of the General Directorate of General Security.

In the same context, parliamentary blocs in the Lebanese parliament stressed the need to develop a plan to address “displacement”, in addition to the necessity to agree on a binding decision supporting Lebanon’s position at the upcoming parliamentary session, with the approach of the Brussels conference.

Additionally, the General Security arrested five Syrians, stated as being due to violations of residency laws and sneaking into the country. This occurred during a wide campaign executed in Nabatieh and its region to suppress violations and monitor Syrian labor.

Regarding the return of Syrian refugees from neighboring countries, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, in an interview with Al-Arabiya channel last Wednesday, said that for the return of refugees there needs to be a safe environment and available livelihoods, and it should be the refugees themselves who judge the achievement of these conditions, with the importance of the return being voluntary and the groundwork for it being prepared, linked to the political situation.