On a stormy night, crossing from Syria into Lebanon was not a choice but a forced spiral into the unknown. The Great Southern River in the western countryside of Homs — the natural boundary between the two countries — was swollen with muddy water and surging currents, while the rain turned its banks into sticky mud that swallowed feet. Under those conditions, turning back was not an option, says Umm Hassan. “The smuggler told us to cross — there was no other way.”
Umm Hassan, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon since 2015, had returned to Aleppo for a brief family visit. Although she entered Syria legally, she was forced to return to Lebanon illegally because she lacked the documents required for lawful reentry.
She recounts the terrifying journey to Alhurra: “I contacted a smuggler the family has known for years. He told me to go with my two children to Homs, where the hardest stage of the trip would begin.”
They waited in a bleak house with her children and nine others until nightfall. There was no heating and no questions — only a heavy silence. As the rain intensified, some thought the trip would be postponed, but preparations for the crossing accelerated under cover of darkness.
They were transported on motorcycles in freezing cold, then dropped near the river, where murky water and flood currents rose above knee level. “The river wasn’t normal water,” Umm Hassan says. “It was torrents that carried away everything in their path.”
“One step was enough for everyone to realize that falling didn’t mean getting wet — it meant drowning. Children were crying, women were clinging to nothing, and fear came before the screams,” she says. “If someone fell, they needed two hands, not one, just to stand back up.”
Umm Hassan and her two children managed to enter Lebanon, but the story took a tragic turn two days later, when news spread late Saturday of several Syrians drowning while attempting to cross the river.
The catastrophe revealed that the drivers of migration have not ended with the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. It cast renewed light on the suffering of Syrians on both sides of the border — in Lebanon and in Syria — under harsh conditions that push them toward perilous routes.
Risks Beyond the River
Crossing the river did not mark the end of fear for Umm Hassan. After reaching the Lebanese bank, she and the others walked silently through dark terrain until they arrived at a sheep pen with no doors and unfinished walls. They were told to wait there for another smuggler. “We heard the sound of a Lebanese security patrol,” she says. “We stayed almost 15 minutes barely breathing.”
Later, a car took them to Wadi Khaled and then to Beirut, where the journey ended geographically but not psychologically. Umm Hassan paid $140 for herself and her two children — a price that cannot capture the true cost of the crossing, measured instead in the fear etched into memory.
“A sense of insecurity dominates wide segments of Syrians, whether in Lebanon or in Syria,” said the head of the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, noting that this feeling “often stems from personal experiences and may not always be entirely accurate, but it reflects a broader reality of instability for them in both countries.”
Regarding Saturday’s river crossing incident, Asmar categorically denied to Alhurra any role by Lebanese authorities in forcing Syrians to cross, contrary to claims circulated by some websites. He said the victims “were trying to enter from Syria into Lebanon via smugglers, according to survivors’ testimonies,” adding that the smugglers themselves had warned against crossing that day, according to some witnesses, “but some people ignored those warnings, leading to the disaster.”
For its part, the Lebanese army said in a statement that it facilitates “the voluntary return of Syrians to Syrian territory through legal border crossings, in a manner that ensures their safety,” and that it verifies their safe arrival on the Syrian side in coordination with the relevant Syrian authorities.
A Forced Choice?
Human-smuggling networks have been active along the Lebanese-Syrian border since the early years of the Syrian war, benefiting from the security chaos that prevailed under the Assad regime. Despite efforts by Lebanese and Syrian security services to curb their activity, these networks continue to find fertile ground in a fragile border environment, exploiting people’s desperation and the difficulty of controlling illegal crossings.
Asked why she returned to Lebanon rather than staying in Syria, Umm Hassan answered without hesitation: “The situation is very bad. Our area in Aleppo is destroyed. My house is ruined. There is no electricity, no water, no heating, no work.”
She recalls spending 22 days at her sister’s home, managing to shower only twice because of water shortages. “All the talk about conditions improving in Syria is not true,” she says. “Life here is still more bearable than in our country.”
Sheikh Abdul Nasser al-Assali, head of the Syrian Youth Association in Lebanon, said that Lebanese and Syrian laws “complicate movement in and out between the two countries,” noting that women and children are the most exposed to danger — “especially those tied to husbands or fathers who cannot return and who need to regularize their legal and educational status.”
An Official Path — With Caveats
On June 16, the Lebanese Cabinet adopted a plan for the “safe and sustainable return” of Syrian refugees, which includes removing the names of returnees from the records of the U.N. refugee agency and Lebanese General Security, stripping them of the status they held in previous years.
During a visit to Lebanon in June, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi affirmed the agency’s support for the Lebanese government’s plan, stressing the need for international assistance. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, for his part, underscored the importance of organizing returns with international backing after the causes of displacement had faded.
From the start of the plan’s implementation through Dec. 15, about 380,000 displaced Syrians had returned, according to Social Affairs Minister Hanine El-Sayed, who said their names were permanently removed from the U.N. database. She added in a post on X that about 74,000 others had expressed a desire to return before the end of the year.
Lebanon has hosted about 1.5 million Syrian refugees since the outbreak of the war, including roughly 950,000 registered with the U.N. refugee agency, according to the United Nations. With a population of about six million, Lebanon says it hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.
Mohammed Sablouh, director of the legal program at the Cedar Center, said the political changes in Syria after Assad’s fall effectively stripped Syrians of “political refugee” status. Lebanon, he noted, “never recognized that status in the first place, instead classifying them as displaced persons to evade international obligations.”
Even so, Sablouh told Alhurra that returns must be “voluntary, safe and dignified,” criticizing Lebanese authorities for pushing refugees toward “forced return through financial fines for expired residency permits and onerous conditions for renewal, along with cases of withdrawal and replacement with deportation cards.”
He added that anti-Syrian racist campaigns in Lebanon “have receded in the media and politically but have not ended on the ground,” and that much of refugees’ fear stems from security concerns, including “the presence of remnants of the former regime in Lebanon and their potential to destabilize the situation.” Pursuing those elements, he said, would be “reassuring for refugees and supportive of Syria’s stability.”
Deadly Consequences
Syrians in Lebanon fall into two main categories, Assali said: “refugees who fled the war and the oppression of the former regime, and those who were present before the war and have businesses, social ties and family connections with Lebanese.”
He added that Assad’s fall enabled many to return, “especially those whose homes are still standing,” while others remained temporarily, awaiting reconstruction projects or allowing their children to continue their education in Lebanon. Return, he stressed, “is not rejected, except by remnants of the former regime involved in bloodshed or hostile positions toward their own country.”
While Lebanon had anticipated a large-scale return following Assad’s fall, it was surprised by a new influx of Syrians, many of whom entered after the bloody events along Syria’s coast in March.
Regarding Syrians entering Lebanon illegally, Sablouh stressed “the Lebanese state’s responsibility to monitor the border in coordination with the Syrian side,” calling for legal and safe pathways and warning of grave dangers to lives — especially children — during river crossings or transit through mine-infested areas.
Umm Hassan ended her testimony with a warning against using illegal routes, stressing that the risk is enormous and that “death on this road is closer than survival.”
Incentives — and Corrections
The Lebanese government has extended a circular offering additional facilitation to Syrian and Palestinian refugees arriving from Syria who wish to leave Lebanon through official land crossings until March 31, 2026, the U.N. refugee agency announced Monday.
The program includes organized transportation under the supervision of the U.N. agency and the International Organization for Migration, as well as a one-time cash grant of $100 per returning family member.
Asmar said the primary driver of return is conditions inside Syria, citing “the absence of a serious plan by the Syrian government to incentivize returns from host countries,” alongside growing fears of the unknown, particularly among those who lost their homes, and complications related to education and employment.
He emphasized the need for a joint Lebanese-Syrian plan to encourage safe and organized returns, centered on easing passage through official crossings, arguing that sitting at one table “remains the best economic, social and political option for both countries.”
Assali, meanwhile, said return is tied to accelerating Syria’s reconstruction and implementing international decisions that allow the country to reopen freely to its economy and resources, along with an end to Israeli strikes that have displaced many in Daraa, Quneitra and the Damascus countryside.
Sablouh said the lack of security and political guarantees in Syria remains a major obstacle to the return of large numbers of refugees, despite the Syrian Foreign Ministry forming a committee aimed at encouraging returns, prioritizing refugees in Lebanon, and the readiness of several Arab states to provide assistance.
He added that the file remains “highly complex, combining humanitarian, security and legal dimensions,” stressing that lifting international sanctions and launching reconstruction are decisive factors in accelerating the return process.
