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The Lebanese army announced 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.
A statement from the Lebanese army 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 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.
The fire broke out on Saturday in the camp that houses 75 families near the city of Hanin in northern Lebanon in the Al-Minya 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.
And today, Sunday (December 27, 2020), dozens of refugees returned to inspect the camp in an attempt to rescue 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 returned to inspect the contents of our little shop, so we knew we no longer had anything and that we couldn’t secure alternative shelter while we waited for someone to help us. “
“We lost everything in a moment, and my four children lived in unparalleled terror as we escaped the fire,” he added, searching the rubble for the remains of their belongings.
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 call for Syrian citizens who were forced to leave the country due to 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 camp residents had been transferred “to nearby informal camps … or were provided shelter by area residents.” “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.
AM / PMC (AFP)
