The Lebanese Presidency said in a statement that President Michel Aoun met last Monday with the Regional Director of the International Organization for Migration, “Carmela Godot”, and asked her to help the organization to return refugees to the Syrian areas that have become “safe”, he said.
Aoun said during his aforementioned meeting that Lebanon has been suffering from the repercussions of Syrian refugees since 2011 until now, claiming that the return of Syrians to their country will remove a “great burden” off his country and alleviate Lebanon’s economic ordeal as well as the spread of the Coronavirus.
In turn, Godot indicated that the organization has worked to resettle 120.000 Syrians in a third country, and that work is underway to help three thousand people who have applied to move to a third country.
It is noteworthy that, on the seventeenth of last July, the Lebanese Council of Ministers announced its approval of a paper presented by the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, Ramzi Musharafieh, which stipulated that: “adhering to the return of the displaced Syrians, and not linking the return to the political process in Syria.”
The United States of America had criticized the approval of the Lebanese Council of Ministers of this plan, and expressed regret by the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Schenker, about that decision, stressing that it is not appropriate for the Syrian refugees to return to their country now.
Schenker explained that his country requires the return of Syrian refugees to be safe, dignified and completely voluntary, and that Washington is committed to helping Lebanon bear the “burden” of the Syrian refugees on its territory by providing it with continuous humanitarian assistance.
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