BEIRUT 

The Lebanese army on Wednesday said it stopped some 900 Syrians from illegally entering the Lebanese territory in January.

In a statement, the Lebanese army said in the context of curbing illegal migration and smuggling, it stopped nearly 900 Syrians at the Syrian Lebanese borders.

In the past months, the Syrian Lebanese border areas witnessed intense waves of migration attempts due to the economic crisis and unstable security conditions in Syria.

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, about 900,000 of whom are registered with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Since 2019, Lebanon has been plagued by a crippling economic crisis that, according to the World Bank, is one of the worst the world has seen in modern times.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar