More than 200,000 people have crossed from Lebanon to Syria between March 2 and 27, mostly Syrian refugees, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. The vast majority (around 180,000) are Syrian refugees returning to their country, although more than 28,000 Lebanese have also fled that way, UNHCR's representative in Syria, Aseer Madaien, said at a press conference. "They arrive exhausted, traumatized, and with very few belongings," the UNHCR source recounted, noting that the peak of arrivals occurred in mid-March, especially from families in the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon. According to UNHCR, half of the Syrians interviewed after this exodus intend to stay permanently in Syria despite economic challenges and limited services, joining the nearly three million who have returned since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024. "They have returned to their country of origin after having suffered a lot, and now they only hope that the situation here will be better," Madaien stated, recalling that UNHCR needs $324 million for its operations to support these communities in 2026, although it has so far received less than 30% of the funding.
