BEIRUT (Reuters) – Fifty thousand Syrians have returned home from Lebanon so far in 2018 and the number could reach 200,000 in a year’s time if it continues at this rate, a top Lebanese official said on Tuesday.
Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon’s General Security directorate, told Reuters his security agency had organized the return of 25,000 Syrians in coordination with Damascus. Another 25,000 had made their own way home.
Lebanon is hosting 976,000 registered Syrian refugees, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The government says the total number of Syrians in the country is around 1.5 million.
Lebanese politicians have been calling for Syrian refugees to go home as President Bashar al-Assad wins back more of the country, saying Lebanon cannot cope with hosting a number of refugees equivalent to a quarter of its population.
Ibrahim is coordinating with Damascus over the return of thousands of Syrians who want to go home.
SYRIAN CONSTITUTION الدستور السوري 