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Beirut (AFP)
The Lebanese military announced Sunday that it had arrested eight people after a dispute led a group of Lebanese to burn down an unofficial camp for Syrian refugees in the north of the country.
An army statement read: “An Intelligence Directorate patrol in the city of Bahnin – Minya (north), arrested two Lebanese citizens and six Syrians, on the basis of individual forms that occurred last night in the city between a group of young Lebanese and several Syrian workers.
The statement added that the dispute “turned into shots fired into the air by young Lebanese, who also intentionally burned tents for displaced Syrians,” without giving details about the reason for the disagreement.
On Saturday, fire broke out in the camp, which is home to 75 families, near the northern Lebanese city of Hanin in the Miniyeh area, turning the entire camp into scorched earth.
All 370 residents of the camp were forced to flee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and at least four people were taken to hospital with injuries.
On Sunday, dozens of refugees returned to inspect the camp in an attempt to salvage what was left of their possessions that could have been saved from the fire.
Amira Issa, 45, who sought refuge from Homs to Lebanon with her family to escape the war eight years ago, said while crying: “We went back to inspect the contents of our little shop, so we knew we no longer had anything and that we couldn’t provide alternative shelter while we waited for someone to help us. ”
He added, searching the rubble for the remains of his belongings: “We lost everything in a moment, and my four children lived in unparalleled terror as we escaped the scorching fire.”
The incident sparked sympathy on social media with residents of the camp from Lebanese who condemned this racist act.
An official source from the Syrian Foreign Ministry expressed to the official SANA agency “deep regret” over the incident, which “led to terrorizing residents and depriving several of them of refuge.”
The source added that Syria “renews the invitation to Syrian citizens who were forced to leave the country by the unjust war against Syria to return to their homeland,” noting that the government “is making every effort to facilitate this return. “.
The spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Khaled Kabbara, said that residents of the camp had been transferred “to nearby informal camps … or were provided shelter by residents of the area.”
“We saw a remarkable level of solidarity from the Lebanese community, who provided empty hospitals and schools to house them,” he added.
Lebanon says it is home to 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including about a million registered as refugees with the United Nations.
Authorities have called on the refugees to return to Syria, despite warnings from human rights groups that Syria is not a safe country to return to.
In November, some 270 Syrian families fled the city of Bcharre, also in northern Lebanon, after a Syrian was accused of killing a resident of the city, sparking a general wave of tension.
© 2020 AFP
