Around 3,000 Syrian refugees have left their tents in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley after oral eviction orders issued last month by the army, Human Rights Watch (HRW) told AFP on Tuesday (April 11th).
Lebanon is home to over one million Syrian refugees, many of whom live in informal tented settlements set up on private agricultural land.
In late March, Lebanon's armed forces said refugees living in camps near security installations, such as the Riyaq military airport, would have to leave.
A security source said the decision had been "taken for security purposes".
"There cannot be large population centres around military bases. We choose security -- security over any other consideration," the source said.
HRW said a total of 10,000 refugees were at risk of displacement from camps.
"About 3,000 people have left their homes of their own accord after receiving oral eviction notices," said HRW's Lebanon researcher Bassam Khawaja.
"The orders came out starting in late March... and they gave people between seven and 10 days to evacuate their camps," he said.
Although the deadline had already passed, HRW said the army had yet to carry out any forced evictions.
"But the big issue is there continues to be a lack of clarity from the government and the army about where these people are supposed to move to," he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it did not know how many refugees had relocated but said "a number of families have already moved to nearby plots of land".
