Syrian travellers crossing into Lebanon pay up to 60 times the official entry fee to brokers, fixers and travel agencies behind a profitable parallel market around Lebanese border procedures that have tightened sharply since Bashar al-Assad's fall in December 2024.
A driver working the Damascus-Beirut route, speaking to Euronews on condition of anonymity for security reasons, described a system in which travel agencies in the Syrian capital, paperwork fixers at the crossing and partners in Beirut sell packaged entry solutions to Syrians who cannot navigate the official process alone.
