Syrians stranded at Beirut airport return to Syria

Two Syrian civilian aircraft departed Friday from Beirut Rafik Hariri International airport carrying two batches out of 400 Syrian citizens who were stranded at the airport after failing to depart to Turkey on Thursday.

A security source at the airport told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that a third plane is to arrive later of Friday to carry the remaining Syrian passengers.

Four hundred Syrians who arrived from Syria were supposed to depart to Turkey Thursday evening, but two Turkish planes that were supposed to fly them did not arrive at the (RHIA), the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

In December, Turkey's Foreign Ministry announced visa requirements for Syrians arriving to Turkey via a third country, in a move that is designed to lower the influx of Syrians arriving in Turkey, and it comes after European officials criticized Ankara for not doing enough to limit the flow of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa trying heading to Europe.

The chief of the airport security, General George Doumit, made contacts with the administrator of the Syrian Arab Airlines Samir Harb to take the necessary measures to return the 400 Syrians back to Syria the NNA said.

It added that a Syrian plane had arrived at the airport at 1:30 pm and another one at 5:00 and it is expecting a third plane at 9:00 pm. Endit