Lebanon nixes Syrian refugees' return from Uruguay

Lebanon has declined to accept the return of five Syrian refugee families unhappy with their resettlement in Uruguay, according to the website of Uruguay's presidency Thursday.

Asked about the fate of the five families, Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez told reporters: "The government got in touch with Lebanon to find out if they could receive the Syrian refugees and they said no."

"Uruguay doesn't prohibit the Syrians from leaving, but we have to see which country will accept them," added Vazquez while attending an unrelated event.

He indicated the government would continue to work on their behalf to resolve the situation, which made headlines after the families staged a sit-in Monday in the capital Montevideo, asking to return to the Middle East.

The families, 42 people in all, are asking to return to Lebanon, the country they left in October 2014 to come to the South American nation, where they say their "future looks bleak."

Adults and children camped out with their luggage and other belongings at the central Independence Plaza facing government headquarters, as the heads of the households complained to reporters about the high cost of living, low wages and inability to secure visas to travel. Uruguay and its people, they said, were not the problem.

Uruguay's El Pais daily published a photo Thursday of three young children and an adult above the caption "Two Syrian families camp outside" government headquarters. It wasn't clear whether the rest were also still there.

The director of the Presidency's Human Rights Secretariat, Javier Miranda, told the daily, "we are doing everything we can to get them off the street."

The Syrians arrived as part of an outreach initiative of then president Jose Mujica, and they were to be followed by seven more families, for a total of 116 Middle Eastern refugees. Enditem