Lebanon ready to work with Syria on refugee crisis, slams UN for registering more displaced

Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said Monday that his country is ready to work with Damascus if the civil-war torn country plans to facilitate the return of its displaced citizens.

"Lebanon is ready to facilitate a path for Syrians to return to their country and we accept any cooperation with the Syrian government if the latter has arranged plans for their return," Derbas told a press conference at his office.

The minister said it has discussed with the UN Coordinator in Lebanon Ross Mountain a response plan for 2015-2016, which is announced by Lebanon to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis.

He said the plan,which needs two billion U.S. dollars in aid, has only received only 600 million so far, adding that the UN coordinator informed him the aid money could reach one billion by years' end.

The plan requires substantial efforts and will be fully implemented despite the political situation in Lebanon and the region, the official said, adding that it is a "crisis which must be properly addressed."

Derbas also said his country "refuses to deal with Syrians on a racial basis" pointing out that Lebanon is not "an asylum state and is not bound by rules applied in asylum countries except with respect to humanitarian issues and we have assisted displaced Syrians more than any other country in the world."

According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees, Lebanon hosts over 1.2 million displaced Syrians.

Last month, Derbas said Lebanon is preparing to ask the Arab League (AL) to help with alleviating the burden of the Syrian refugees.

"We need an Arab conference for discussing the Syrian displacement from a social point of view," Derbas told the al-Markazia news agency.

He said "we are in the process of putting a paper that will be submitted to the AL, in which we will address our view of how to address the Syrians presence in Lebanon or Syria, as an improved security situation in Syria would encourage them to return to their homeland."

Also on Monday, Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil accused the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of violating the nation's decision to stop registering displaced Syrians as refugees.

The minister said that the number of displaced Syrians decreased in the first few months since the no-entry decision was put in place at the beginning of this year, adding that the figure has begun to rebound since April, and the UNHCR is registering newborn Syrians in the country as refugees.

Early this year, the Lebanese government imposed unprecedented entry restrictions for Syrian nationals in a move to curb their numbers.

Bassil pointed that the UN agency's registration of Syrian newborns violates the international law and the government's decision.

"We have asked the agency several times to stop registering Syrian newborns in Lebanon but we didn't get any response," Bassil said, warning that relations with the UNHCR could deteriorate.

The huge number of Syrian refugees has indeed put a heavy burden on Lebanon, which has been seeking international help with the refugee crisis. The World Bank projected that the nation's economy could suffer a direct loss of about one billion U.S. Dollars. Endit