Off the wire
• Kenya's central bank lowers benchmark lending rate  • Nigeria warns air passengers against Samsung phones  • Asian hornet sighted in Britain for first time  • UN chief thanks Chile for strong contributions  • President of UN General Assembly calls for order in hall in an unusual manner  • Czech holds NATO Ample Strike 2016 air exercise  • "Accessible tourism" to become theme for 2016 World Tourism Day: UNWTO  • Tobruq Legacy 2016 air defense exercise begins in Slovakia  • Chinese Paralympic delegation welcomed home after successful Rio campaign  • Greek Paralympians return home as heroes, spreading optimism for the future  
You are here: 　 Home

Lebanon hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees: minister

Xinhua, September 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas asserted Tuesday that the true number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is 1.5 million, not 1.1 million recorded by the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees, the National News Agency reported.

Derbas, who received at his office a delegation of the justice committee at the European Union that discussed with him the condition of displaced Syrians, noted "in addition to the 1.5 million Syrians, Lebanon hosts 500,000 Palestinian refugees as well."

He stressed "if the international community thought that Lebanon was able to uphold two million refugees across its lands to become citizens, they would believe an absurd thing."

Derbas hoped that a positive cooperation would be conducted between Lebanon and European Union in favor of projects serving the return of displaced people to their homeland. Endit