After weeks of waiting, Lebanese citizens in Syria return home

al-Masn'a crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border

North-Press Agency 

 

On Thursday, about 100 Lebanese citizens left Syria heading to Lebanon after more than 7 weeks of border closing due to coronavirus, though not all of the applicants have been able to leave yet.

 

Thr Syrian government exceptionally opened the al-Masn'a and al-Aboudiyah border crossings north of Damascus on Thursday for Lebanese citizens to leave for their country. Lebanese health teams conducted PCR tests while Lebanese security forces took them to the quarantine centers.

 

The Syrian government decided to open the two crossings from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Because of the large number of people, half of the Lebanese citizens were not able to cross to Lebanon, and were forced to move back to their places of residence in Syria.

 

The first batch of Lebanese left Syria on Tuesday, to be completed today, while the Syrian government and its Lebanese counterpart did not make any declarations regarding those who have not been able to leave so far.

 

Hundreds of Lebanese have been stuck in Syria due to the closure of the Syrian-Lebanese border on March 18th.