BEIRUT — At Masnaa, on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the line of buses and cars stretches for several kilometers. Since Monday, more than 31,000 people have crossed the border, according to the Lebanese authorities: some 16,130 Lebanese and 15,600 Syrian citizens, many of whom themselves were refugees from the civil war in Syria.
These are the families now fleeing the intensive Israeli bombardment that is continuing in several locations across Lebanon. Seeking refuge, they are heading en masse for neighboring Syria, that other war-torn country.
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After enduring huge traffic jams, these families still have to face long hours waiting at the border post on the Lebanese side to register their exit and stamp their travel documents. Tired of waiting, entire families abandon their means of transport to walk the last few kilometers to the border post.
Chaos and waiting
In an atmosphere of chaos, with Lebanese security officials overwhelmed by the number of requests and the red tape imposed, tension mounts with fatigue and nightfall. Masnaa lies at an altitude of over 1,000 meters, and it gets quite cold at night. Most of the refugees have left their homes, leaving everything behind. Some left with just the clothes on their backs.
Volunteers from NGOs working in the “neutral” zone between the two border crossings distribute food and water, and in some cases mattresses and blankets for people who will have to spend the night in the open air.
It’s a surprising turnaround for Lebanon.
Once they have crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border, they still have a long way to go. Another long wait awaits them on the Syrian side. Registration formalities are more detailed and more complicated. The small number of officials is quickly overwhelmed by the number of requests.
Although the Lebanese do not need a visa to enter Syria, the officials have to fill in the necessary forms, often by hand.
0 entry fee
All foreigners entering Syria, including Lebanese, must pay a minimum of 0 per person to buy Syrian pounds at the official Bank of Syria rate, which is far lower than the black market rate. This measure, imposed by the Syrian government, is intended to replenish the state’s foreign currency coffers. Demand for the Syrian pound is so great that it will soon be in short supply at this border crossing, adding to the woes of Lebanese refugees.
It’s a surprising turnaround for Lebanon, which since 2011 has received over a million Syrian refugees fleeing the war in their homeland.
Among the Syrians returning home after long years in Lebanon, 23-year-old Samir had left Aleppo in 2015 to settle in Tyre, the large coastal city in southern Lebanon. When the bombardments began on Monday, he packed his bags and headed in the opposite direction with his wife and six children, all born in Lebanon, to bring them to the safety of his hometown.
Assad’s amnesty
Nour is a 42-year-old woman from southern Lebanon. She shared her nightmarish experience fleeing her home region with Les Echos. “When they started bombing my village on Monday, I hid in my house. I too had received a message asking us to move away from Hezbollah’s weapons caches or rocket launch sites, but I had nowhere else to go.”
Nour lives alone as her husband and children work and study abroad. “When I saw that the strikes were intensifying, I called a cousin in Beirut who told me to flee at all costs. I don’t have a driver’s license, and all my neighbors who were leaving to take their families to safety no longer had room in their cars.”
She was able to find a spot at the back of a small truck with other Lebanese residents to go to Beirut: “We spent the night on the road, with small children screaming in fear. There were about 30 of us crammed into the back of the van. We left with nothing, there was no room for our suitcases. (…) We were all scared that a missile would fall on our heads.”
They will still need a home.
In Beirut she was taken into a shelter set up in a public school with about 100 families. With the clothes they wear as their only baggage, these women, men, children and old people can only to cling to the slim hope that the strikes will stop.
For Syrian refugees who had fled their country, war or regime, Bashar al-Assad signed a general amnesty decree earlier this week for crimes committed before September 22, 2024, including those who had fled compulsory conscription, opening the door for thousands of refugees to return home. But they will still need a “home” when they arrive back in Syria.
For Lebanese living in the South and Bekaa, Hezbollah strongholds currently under intense bombardment, Damascus is the shortest and safest route: the absence of visas, and the relative safety of the areas controlled by Assad’s regime, encouraged the most far-sighted to rent low-cost apartments there from the start of the crisis in October 2023.
