Escaping war has become even more difficult for Syrian refugees (LIVE BLOG)

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Here's a visualization of Syria's refugee crisis

Lebanon-Syria timeline

Agence France-Presse — Timeline of relations since 1976 between Damascus and Lebanon, which, overwhelmed by a massive influx of refugees from Syria's civil war, began imposing Monday unprecedented visa restrictions on Syrians.

– June 6, 1976: A year after the start of the Lebanese civil war, Syrian troops enter the country at the request of Christian groups.

– March 16, 1977: Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt is assassinated.

– July 1978: Shelling of Beirut's Christian neighbourhoods by the Syrian army after a change of alliance, having sided with mostly Muslim and Palestinian leftist forces.

– June 1982: Israeli forces invade Lebanon, sweeping into Beirut. In September,Syrian troops pull back to the east of the country while Palestinian fighters move east and north.

– February,1987: With the civil war still raging, some 8,000 Syrian soldiers are deployed in west Beirut.

– Oct. 22, 1989: Lebanese inter-party talks in Taif, Saudi Arabia, produce an agreement that will in 1990 end the civil war. The deal calls for a Syrian pullback to the east of the country, but does not set a date for a full withdrawal.

– May 22, 1991: Lebanon and Syria sign a friendship treaty, which sets Syria's dominating role in stone. – October 15, 1998: Emile Lahoud, a pro-Syrian general, is elected president of Lebanon.

– April 16, 2001: An Israeli raid against a Syrian position after an attack by Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. The bulk of the Syrian army deploys to the Bekaa Valley, in the east.

– Sept. 2, 2004: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1559 calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon and respect for its sovereignty.

– Feb. 14, 2005: Anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri is assassinated. His supporters accuse Syria of ordering the killing but Damascus denies any involvement.

– April 26: The last Syrian troops leave Lebanon after 29 years of presence, under pressure from the street, the opposition and the international community.

– May 7, 2008: The start of clashes between Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, and government supporters, backed by Saudi Arabia and the US. Nearly 100 die in one week.

– May 25: Army chief Michel Sleiman is elected Lebanon's 12th president after a deal between the government and opposition in Doha.

– October 15: Lebanon and Syria formally establish diplomatic relations for the first time since they emerged as independent states after World War II.

– March 15, 2011: Start of the conflict in Syria, which will develop into a devastating and complex civil war. Lebanon's government, where more than 1.1 million Syrians have found refuge, is split between supporters of the Syrian regime, including Hezbollah, and backers of the uprising, making any decision on the refugees difficult.

Syrians are being targeted in Lebanon

In their piece on Lebanon's latest immigration regulations, The Washington Post's Hugh Naylor and Suzan Haidamous mention some key historical details on the relations between Damascus and Beirut:

Syria views Lebanon as an artificial construction of the European colonial era. During Lebanon's civil war, which ended in 1990, Syrian troops entered the country and remained there until they were forced to withdraw a decade ago. Only in 2008 did Damascus establish diplomatic ties with Beirut.

Syrians are being targeted in Lebanon

The Independent's Fernande Van Tets reports on the violence against Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The violence has prompted some Syrians to consider going back to their war-torn country.

But deteriorating circumstances are pushing refugees to return voluntarily, to unknown circumstances. "I will return to Syria," Abdullah says. "Even if I will have no work there, it will be better."

A breakdown of the refugee population in Lebanon

Backlash to Lebanon's new immigration policy

The BBC has rounded up reactions to Lebanon's new immigration rules for Syrian refugees – from the piece:

…the pro-Syrian paper Al-Safir voices concern that the new regulations will "increase the suffering of not only Syrian refugees, but also for Syrian families residing in Lebanon."

This Syrian refugee lost his entire family in the Mediterranean 

GlobalPost's Jason Overdorf wrote about the record number of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean last year, which included the story of a doctor from Syria who lost his wife and children when traffickers fired at their boat. Here's an excerpt from his piece:

When Mazen Dahhan decided to flee Syria’s civil war last year, he entrusted his life and those of his wife and three children to a smuggler in Libya who promised to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

The 37-year-old neurosurgeon hoped he and his family would find refuge in Italy. But less than 24 hours after they embarked on the journey, their fate took a harrowing turn.

Their ship came under fire off the coast of Malta from traffickers in another boat. When their vessel sank, Dahhan says, his entire family drowned.

"You can’t imagine what it was like," he says. "I lost ten years of my life in ten seconds." 

At least 30 of Dahhan’s fellow passengers perished. More than 200 were rescued in the following days, the Guardian reported in October 2013.

The number of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean has soared since then: More than 3,000 people have drowned attempting to cross the sea in 2014, according to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration.

Another hurdle for Syrian refugees: Landmines

This story in Al Jazeera explains the threat of landmines facing Syrian asylum seekers attempting to cross the Syria-Turkey border.

The New York-based group [Human Rights Watch] said the landmines, in a restricted zone along the border with Syria, threaten thousands more Syrian refugees.

It said it interviewed one Syrian Kurdish woman who stepped on a mine after she entered Turkey, badly wounding herself and her seven-year-old daughter. She said she did not see any signs warning that there were landmines in the area.

Lebanon restricts flow of Syrian refugees

The plight of Syrian refugees continues to worsen with each passing year. Lebanon, which has taken in more than a million refugees, has enforced new regulations to curb the number of asylum seekers entering the country. This is what a driver who shuttles people from Damascus to Lebanon told Reuters about the potential impacts of the new immigration regulations:

Mohammed Moukhaiber, a Syrian who drives people from the Syrian capital Damascus to Lebanon, said he is worried he will now have to repeatedly apply for permits and that many of the workers he transports will not qualify under the new rules.

"It will have an effect. There are people with business here, workers and drivers. Some have been working here for 20 years, they will surely be affected by this decision," he said.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR called on the government to clarify the role of refugees under the new legislation.

"Our concern is that there is no mention of refugees in these new regulations," spokesman Ron Redmond said. "We'd like some information on exactly how the procedure will be carried out to ensure the most vulnerable can still get in."