Lebanon to Call for Redistribution of Refugees
Lebanon is expected to participate on Tuesday in a conference of states hosting Syrian refugees in Brussels, the head of the delegation, MP Michel Moussa, said.
Moussa told An Nahar newspaper published on Monday that he will call in his speech for providing Lebanon with promised assistance to confront the refugee crisis and to redistribute the displaced Syrians on countries capable of hosting them.
Lebanon can no longer carry this burden, he said.
The unending misery of the approximately 4 million Syrian refugees scattered around Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab nations is one significant factor in the rise. With the Syrian civil war in its fifth year, they have little hope of returning home, and for many the situation in exile is worsening. Because of lack of funding, for example, the World Food Program has had to strike hundreds of thousands of refugees off its rolls for monthly vouchers to buy food, and for some others the payment has been reduced to $13 a month.
The desperation of the refugees have led them to Europe to start a new life there.
The European Commission has approved a controversial plan to distribute 160,000 refugees around the continent.
Despite an outpouring of public sympathy for the plight of the refugees, many of whom are from Syria, several eastern European countries have already warned they will oppose any binding quotas on absorbing asylum seekers.
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Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Naharnet
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