Report: Refugee Repatriation File 'Ground to a Halt'

Despite a Russian initiative that vowed to help repatriate the Syrian refugees to their homeland, genuine efforts to ease that return are “disrupted,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Official sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told the daily the file is currently “totally disrupted,” and that Lebanese officials have no signs of any Arab or international efforts in that direction.

Although “Moscow confirms it has not stopped to secure the return of Syrian refugees, but nothing tangible has yet emerged,” added the sources.

Moreover, the “shy” voluntary return of some of the refugees that is being coordinated with Lebanon’s General Security apparatus is “not compatible with the magnitude of this file,” said the daily.

Last year, Russia has put forward plans to the United States to cooperate for the safe return of refugees to Syria.

It proposed the establishment of working groups in Lebanon and Jordan, to where many refugees have fled.

Seven years into Syria's war, Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, compared with a local population of 4.5 million.

Several hundred Syrians have willingly returned to their hometowns in Syria in the past few months.