Lebanese FM warns of plan to keep Syrian refugees permanently in Lebanon

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil remarked on Wednesday that the case of Syrian refugees is the greatest crisis modern Lebanon is facing, Naharnet reported.

He said during a conference on education held at Phoenicia Hotel: “There is a real plan to keep displaced Syrians in Lebanon, which we should confront, as they should not be turned into permanent refugees.”

“The international community is responsible for the suffering of the Syrian children because it failed to resolve their country's crisis,” he noted.

“The Lebanese state is also responsible because it has not differentiated between the real war refugee and an economic refugee,” added the minister.

“The government's policy towards Syrian refugees has threatened civil peace and national harmony,” Bassil stated.

“Why doesn't the international community eliminate Lebanon's foreign debt if it wants to help the refugees in the country?” he wondered.

There are more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Well over half of them are living in insecure dwellings – up from a third last year. The country has struggled to cope with their burden since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in March 2011.