Hundreds of Syrians, who took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon from war in their homeland, were repatriated yesterday, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
The returnees, mostly women and children, arrived at Syria’s al-Zamrani crossing from the town of Arsal in north-eastern Lebanon, SANA said.
They were later transported in buses to government-controlled villages in the region of Qalamoun in the countryside of the Syrian capital Damascus, the agency added, without giving specific figures.
Lebanon’s official news agency LNA put the number of the group at 400 people and said their return was “voluntary.”
Yesterday’s returnees are the latest batch of Syrians going back to their country as the war winds down there.
Last month, nearly 400 Syrians returned to Al-Qalamoun from Arsal, where informal camps host more than 60,000 Syrian refugees.
Lebanon is home to some 1mn Syrians who fled the war which erupted in their country in 2011. Last month, Lebanese authorities said they had frozen the renewal of residency permits for UN refugee agency staff amid a row about the repatriation of Syrians. 
Caretaker Lebanese Foreign Minister Jubran Bassil ordered the freeze, after accusing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of discouraging Syrians from returning to their homeland.


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