Rights groups are concerned the scheme may contain elements of coercion and result in reprisals.
Hundreds of Syrian refugees have left the remote Lebanese mountain town of Arsal in a convoy of trucks headed for the northern border on the first day of a controversial repatriation scheme.
Lebanese authorities say 751 Syrian refugees began returning to Syria on Wednesday under a voluntary programme coordinated by Lebanon’s General Security, the agency responsible for safeguarding the country’s borders.
Syria has been devastated by a civil war that started in 2011 following an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Much of the country remains in ruins, with power stations, schools and water services ravaged by the conflict.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Arsal, said the returnees were being handled by Lebanese authorities without the cooperation of the United Nations or other human rights groups.
“There is a lot of uncertainty, people here say they don’t know what they are returning to,” Khodr said.
Rights groups have expressed concerns that the scheme may contain elements of coercion and result in reprisals.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), among others, has documented cases where returnees faced grave human rights abuses and persecution at the hands of the Syrian government and affiliated militias, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and kidnappings.
The majority of those interviewed by HRW also struggled to survive and meet their basic needs in Syria.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun had announced earlier this month that Beirut would soon begin sending Syrian refugees back to their home country “in batches”.
HRW Lebanon researcher Aja Majzoub reacted to Aoun’s announcement on Twitter saying that “any forced returns of refugees to Syria would amount to a breach of Lebanon’s refoulement obligations”.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera
