by Salah Takieddine
BEIRUT, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Syrian refugees in Lebanon expressed on Monday their longing to return home and wish that their humiliation would not be repeated.
A Syrian refugee woman living in a camp in the eastern Bekaa region told Xinhua on Monday "we want to return to our country. We do not want to go here or there, we only want to return home to the city of Rakka."
Another Syrian refugee who also declined to give his name to Xinhua, called on Lebanon's PM Saad Hariri to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Assad so their return could be facilitated.
He said "we ask the Prime Minister of Lebanon to negotiate with President Bashar Assad for us to return home. All these issues should be settled so we could be able to return to our country and help rebuild it."
Meanwhile, some 300 Syrian refugee families living in the eastern border town of Arsal returned last week to Syria in a convoy that was part of an agreement brokered by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army escorted around 250 people out of the border town of Arsal. The refugees headed for the Syrian town of Asal al-Ward across the border, northeast of Damascus.
The families feared of the latest news regarding an imminent raid that Hezbollah will launch with the Syrian army against the fundamentalist militants entrenched in the outskirts of Arsal.
According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees, Lebanon hosts more than 1.1 million Syrian who fled their war-torn country since the rebellion against the regime of President Bashar Assad erupted in March 2011.
However the Lebanese government puts the number around 1.5 million who are scattered across Lebanon, mostly in randomly erected camps and often in severe poverty, and face the risk of arrest because of restrictions on legal residence and work.
Lebanon recently witnessed a division regarding whether the government should work directly with the Syrian government over the return of refugees, which Hezbollah and its allies advocate.
Others, including Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, are strongly opposed, questioning the safety of the refugees once they return, pledging not to force them to leave the country and stressing that their return will only be negotiated with the United Nations.
