Aoun receives UN representative in Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, in Baabda, May 6, 2022. (Photo Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Friday that “one reason for the prolonged stay of Syrian refugees on Lebanese soil is that they receive international aid.” This opinion was shared during a meeting in Baabda with United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka.
Here’s what we know:
• “Lebanon is unable to continue fulfilling its duty to refugees, so they must return to their country and receive international assistance there,” Aoun said.
• Ahead of the Brussels VI conference of May 9-10, during which donors are expected to pledge funding in response to the crisis in Syria and neighboring refugee-hosting countries, Lebanese officials have intensified calls for the repatriation of Syrian refugees, whose numbers are believed by some to have risen to over a million since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
• On Saturday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees responded to the Lebanese government’s statement on its inability to continue hosting Syrian refugees by calling on Lebanese authorities to “continue upholding the principles of refugee protection” and on the international community to provide more support to Lebanon to manage the refugees.
• Wronecka said that United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon troops have volunteered to assist the Lebanese government in its search for 30 people who disappeared after a boat carrying clandestine migrants sank off the coast of Tripoli, North Lebanon.