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Beirut: The Lebanese army 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, due to an individual problem that occurred last night in the city between a group of Lebanese youth and several Syrian workers. “
The statement added that the dispute “turned into shots in the air by Lebanese youth who also intentionally set fire to tents for displaced Syrians,” without giving details on 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 may have been handed over by fire.
Amira Issa, 45, who sought refuge from Homs to Lebanon with her family to escape the war eight years ago, crying, said: “We went back to inspect the contents of our little store, so we knew we no longer had anything and that we couldn’t secure an alternative shelter while we waited for someone to help us. ” .
Searching for the remains of his belongings in the rubble, he added: “We lost everything in a moment and my four children lived in unparalleled terror as we escaped the blazing 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 regime’s Foreign Ministry expressed to the official SANA agency “deep regret” for the incident, which “led to the terrorizing of its residents and depriving several of them of shelter.”
The source added that Syria “renews the call for Syrian citizens who were forced to leave the country by the unjust war against Syria to return to their homeland”, stressing 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 the camp’s residents had been transferred “to nearby informal camps or that area residents provided them with shelter.”
“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.
(Agencies)
