HERMEL, Lebanon: Stricter security measures along the Lebanese-Syrian border are bringing movement of people and economic activity between the close-knit border areas in the two countries to a standstill.

Syrian military and security authorities have been implementing stronger security measures along the Lebanese-Syrian border daily as Syria’s popular uprising continues, including planting mines at many illegal crossings on the border, as well as closely checking the identification papers of people traveling between the two countries.

But the measures are also slowing trade, especially in the Baalbek-Hermel region, and preventing residents of border towns and villages from securing basic needs as the smuggling of commodities, especially fuel, has ground to a halt.

Residents say that incidents across the border in Syria have caused panic in the mainly Shiite villages in the Hermel area.

After a businessman from the area, Mohammad Zeaiter, was murdered in Homs where he lived, residents say that they now refrain from visiting Syria.

There are also rumors of people setting fire to homes belonging to Shiites living in Homs and its surrounding areas that are convincing residents to stay away from Syria.

Hussein Nasereddine, a resident of the village of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali, a town that sits on both sides of the Lebanese-Syrian border, says that since the uprising, the crossings between the two parts of the village have been completely closed.

The village would ordinarily be crowded with people and vehicles transporting goods to and from Lebanon, Nasereddine says, adding that the village’s residents on the Lebanese side would often secure their basic needs from Syria at a cheaper price.

According to him, that practice ended when Syrian military and security units established several checkpoints inside the village and its surrounding areas, and now only allow Lebanese residents into Syria to work during the day if they own land there.

Anyone who tries to cross from one side of the village to the other without prior permission might be shot at, he says, and family members who live only dozens of meters apart now cannot visit one another.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Idriss, the mayor of the village of Zeita, which lies 7 kilometers inside Syria, said that there are up to 5,000 Lebanese living in around 20 Syrian villages near the border such as Hawik, Diyabieh, Fadlieh and Safsafah.

According to Idriss, these residents have also been facing difficulty entering Lebanon since the beginning of the events in Syria and now have to travel dozens of kilometers to reach the legal crossing of Jousieh.

Confrontations between protesters and Syrian security forces in the neighboring cities of Homs and Qoseir, especially those that have taken on a sectarian dimension, have caused many residents to flee to Lebanon and settle in border villages and the town of Hermel.

The border crossings between the town of Arsal, where the majority of residents are Sunnis and sympathize with the Syrian uprising, and a number of neighboring Sunni Syrian villages have been closed tightly to prevent communication between residents of both areas, former Arsal Mayor Hussein Faliti says.

According to the mayor, dirt was bulldozed to prevent people from crossing the border and security forces are deployed along the crossings. Faliti says that personnel at a checkpoint at one of the crossings will shoot at any person who approaches the border.

He recounts a recent incident when some of Arsal’s residents attempted to go to their fields to work and were shot at by Syrian military and security units who crossed the border more than once and fired at farmers’ homes and a number of fishermen who were passing by. “This makes it difficult for residents of Arsal to visit their relatives in neighboring Syrian villages,” he adds.

Overland smuggling of fuel between the two countries in the northern Bekaa area has come to a standstill since the closing of all illegal crossings which had been used to facilitate the transport of persons and goods.

According to one smuggler from the area, who declined to give his name, the smuggling of fuel, mainly diesel, used to be pervasive in the border region, driven by the difference in prices. In Syria, the price of 20 liters of diesel is around LL9,000; in Lebanon it’s LL30,000.

Up to 300 tankers, each carrying around 100 barrels of fuel, used to enter the Lebanese market daily coming from Syria, he says, adding that half of the tankers used to pass through Hermel and north Bekaa while the other half passed through the town of Wadi Khalid and some crossings at the Bekaa’s eastern borders with Syria.

Fuel smuggling was a profitable activity, he explains, as it provided jobs and income for residents of country’s economically deprived north.