29 Mar 2021; MEMO: Four Syrian refugees have apparently frozen to death in a mountainous area in eastern Lebanon while trying to cross the border illegally to go back to Syria. While the two women and two children died, eight others were rescued by Lebanese civil defence officers.
The governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bashir Khadr, said that the civil defence and army searched the area for three days. One child was said to have gone missing, but an investigation revealed that he had returned to his father in Beirut.
According to the Lebanese official, people were paying 1.5 million Lebanese pounds per person to a smuggler to take them from Lebanon to Syria.
Lebanese human rights activist Maryam Majdouline Al-Lahham said that the authorities in Beirut prevent displaced Syrians who leave Lebanon legally from returning to the country. This forces families who need to go to Syria and return to Lebanon to try to cross the border illegally.
