The Lebanese Prime Minister said on Monday June 20 that his country, plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis, was going to expel Syrian refugees on its territory if the international community did not help it to repatriate them.
To discover
LIVE - Follow the latest information the day after the second round
Read alsoLebanon at the foot of the wall to reform
SEE ALSO
- Hezbollah leader says Lebanon has "started making drones"
Lebanon says it hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees, the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.
“
Eleven years after the start of the Syrian crisis, Lebanon is no longer able to bear such a burden
,” warned Najib Mikati, referring to the war in neighboring Syria which broke out in 2011. “
I call on the international community to cooperate with Lebanon to repatriate displaced Syrians
,” added the head of government.
“
Otherwise, Lebanon will take a decision that is not desirable for Western countries, namely the expulsion of Syrians from Lebanon
,” he warned, assuring that this would be done “
in a legal way
”.
Cost of maintaining refugees too high
Najib Mikati was speaking at the launch ceremony of the United Nations-backed "
Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2022-2023
", which aims to provide humanitarian aid to 1.5 million Lebanese, the same number Syrian refugees and more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees.
Since 2015, nine billion dollars in aid has been provided under this plan, according to the UN.
And on Monday, Lebanon asked for 3.2 billion dollars "
to deal with the continuing impact of the Syrian crisis
", according to the same source.
At the end of May, the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar had already warned that Lebanon could no longer assume "
the cost
" of keeping Syrian refugees on its territory.
Lebanon has been going through an unprecedented economic crisis since 2019, one of the worst in the history of the world since 1850, according to the World Bank.
Read alsoLebanon fears sanctions against Syria
This crisis has plunged many Lebanese abruptly into poverty, heightening public resentment over the continued presence of Syrian refugees in the country.
Some politicians and experts have recently claimed that thanks to dollar donations from aid agencies, Syrian refugees receive more aid than the poorest Lebanese.
Several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have warned against deporting refugees to Syria, where authorities say they have arrested, tortured or disappeared Syrian returnees.
SEE ALSO
- In Bangladesh, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees demonstrate to return to Burma