Bkirki: Lebanon Must Unify Stance on Refugee File
Following the Brussels donor conference on Syria, Bkirki noted that Lebanon should ask the international community to return the refugees to their land, "not raise funds that keep them" in the host country, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.
“Lebanon’s only demand at the conference should be to ask the international community for the return of the displaced to their homeland instead of raising money to keep them in Lebanon,” Bkirki sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.
The sources urged Lebanese officials to unify a position on the issue of displacement, “the main concern is to rid Lebanon of this crisis, and save the displaced from the situation in which they live, and this can only happen by returning them to their homes in Syria.”
International donors on Thursday pledged nearly $7 billion in aid for 2019 for civilians caught up in Syria's bloody civil war.
In a speech he made at the conference, Prime Minister Saad Hariri urged the allies of the Syrian regime to pressure it into facilitating the return of displaced Syrians in order to end their suffering.
He also stressed the need to secure the appropriate funding for Lebanon's response plan to the crisis, “we ask for $ 2.9 billion to ensure stability for long-term projects," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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