A Syrian refugee informal settlement in Arsal. (Credit: Archive photo João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Wednesday that Lebanon would no longer tolerate any delays from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in delivering data regarding Syrian refugees in Lebanon beyond the end of this month.
This data transfer is part of an agreement the two parties reached in August, as calls for the repatriation of refugees have increased in the wake of a recent influx of Syrians escaping the economic crisis in their country.
"We will no longer tolerate, after the end of the month, delays in delivering data on Syrian migrants and non-compliance with the previously agreed-upon agreement," Bou Habib told the vice-president of UN Special Coordinator Omran Reza, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported. He added, "We have had constructive dialogue regarding refugees with UN representatives on the sidelines of our visit to Syria. Follow-up meetings are ongoing with their colleagues in Lebanon."
During a visit to Damascus on Monday, Bou Habib agreed with his Syrian counterpart "to hold coordination meetings [...] to follow up on issues related to the return of the displaced."
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Lebanon has hosted over 1.5 million Syrians, making it the country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. Approximately 839,000 of them are registered with the UNHCR, but the exact number of Syrians in Lebanon is unknown as the Lebanese government requested in 2015 that the UNHCR cease registering them.