Lebanon bars Syrians without foreign residency from transiting through Beirut airport

Lebanon will no longer allow Syrian citizens to enter the country via its main airport if they intend to travel onward to Syria and do not hold a valid residency permit in another country, according to a new government circular.

The directive on Monday states that all airlines are required to "strictly enforce the condition that Syrians wishing to travel to Syria via Rafic Hariri International Airport must hold a valid residency permit abroad for at least six months".

Those who fail to meet this requirement, it added, will be "sent back on the same plane".

It remains unclear why Lebanese authorities have introduced the measures at this time. The New Arab has contacted Beirut airport officials and Lebanon's General Security Directorate, which oversees border control, but received no response at the time of publication.

Rafic Hariri International Airport, Lebanon’s only civilian airport, has long served as a transit point for Syrians seeking to return home, especially after the suspension of direct flights to Syria following the outbreak of war in 2011.

Lebanon, a country of roughly five million people, has hosted around two million Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict, according to Lebanese authorities, giving it the world’s highest refugee-to-population ratio.

In January, Syria’s new authorities introduced entry restrictions on Lebanese nationals shortly after ousting the Assad regime in Damascus.

The porous Lebanon-Syria border has also become a hub for human trafficking, with smugglers exploiting the lack of oversight to move refugees across the frontier.

Despite a relative lull in large-scale fighting, Syria remains deeply unstable, with ongoing power struggles between armed factions, sporadic militant attacks, and widespread lawlessness.

Meanwhile, Lebanon continues to grapple with the fallout from its own war with Israel. Cross-border skirmishes with Israel escalated into a full-scale war last year, largely involving Hezbollah, leaving parts of southern Lebanon in ruins.

The government in Beirut is also seeking international assistance to fund reconstruction efforts in the country’s war-hit regions.