Lebanon tightens restrictions on Syrian border

People cross Lebanese-Syrian border by foot after residents block roads Beirut – Riad Shouman Lebanese authorities have tightened control over the border crossing with Syria in order to prevent the entry of terrorist groups, a security source said on Wednesday. The measures will bar the entry of Syrians and Palestinians unless they hold both a valid passport or identity card and information identifying them as a refugee or a worker in a Lebanese organisation.  
Although the move is ostensibly to reduce the threat of terrorism, a security source told the Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star that authorities were trying to limit the number of refugees crossing the border into Lebanon.
The newspaper said some Syrians had already been turned back as a result of the new measures.
Syrians at the Masnaa crossing ?complained about the new restrictions, but ministerial sources told the Lebanese newspaper Annar that “these measures are not targeting ?the Syrian citizen, but they aim to protect the Lebanese and protect Syrian refugees too from acts of ?revenge and persecution they might face.”
Unofficial figures estimate there to be one and a half million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, while the ?UN High Commissioner for Refugees puts the number of registered refugees at 645,000. Around 12,000 Syrians cross the Lebanese border in both directions every day, according to the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security.?
Lebanese authorities also extended the deadline for closing down unlicensed businesses from August 15 to August 31 in order to give Syrians enough time to obtain the necessary permission, Annahar reported.
Some Syrians told an Annahar reporter in the Beqaa valley in East Lebanon that they didn\'t register as refugees ?because they live on the income from the shops they have opened, and that the new restrictions will have the result of turning them into refugees. ?
They added that the Lebanese economy benefited from them re-opening abandoned shops.