The Lebanese Minister of the Displaced in the caretaker government, Issam Sharaf El-Din, confirmed that UNHCR the High Commissioner for Refugees and his country had reached an understanding, during which guarantees were provided to Lebanon to return Syrian refugees to their country.
Sharaf El-Din said in an interview with “Voice of Lebanon” radio that “there are guarantees for the return of the displaced Syrians to their country.”
He added: “With regard to political refugees, we have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to deport them to a third country, because the situation is no longer bearable,” as he put it.
Previous Warnings
And earlier this month, Sharaf El-Din confirmed in a press statement that “Lebanon will follow the plan for the return of displaced Syrians to their country, regardless of the position of the UNHCR.”
The Lebanese minister revealed that he will make an official visit to Syria after Eid al-Adha, commissioned by the Lebanese government to discuss this issue with the Syrian government.
Sharaf al-Din indicated that the return of the displaced “will be safe and dignified,” and that it “will be based on the geography of the place, provided that shelters for the displaced will be established within their villages in Syria.”
UNHCR’s political position
On the position of the High Commissioner for Refugees regarding the Lebanese government’s plan, Sharaf El-Din said that “the Commission did not agree on a number of items that were put forward, including a request to suspend the payment of aid.”
He considered that “the Commission’s position is political, and it seems that it has withdrawn from the tripartite committee that its president had demanded,” according to him.
Damascus cooperates
Sharaf al-Din had considered, in a previous statement, that “it is totally unacceptable that Syrian refugees do not return to their country after the war in it has ended and it has become safe,” stressing that Damascus is extending his hand to cooperate in this file.
The minister pointed out that the plan includes returning 15,000 Syrian refugees to their country every month, indicating that he asked the UNHCR to stop aid for them so that it would not be an incentive for them to stay in Lebanon.
temporal threat
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, had previously threatened Western countries to expel the Syrian refugees if the international community did not help his country, in light of the economic crisis it is witnessing.
About a million Syrians live in Lebanon, a large part of them in camps, while the rest live in rented houses.
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