Government Decides to Set up Two Syria Refugee Camps on Border

Lebanon has decided to set up two camps for Syrian refugees for the first time along its border with war-torn Syria, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.

The move comes despite longstanding reservations among many in Lebanon over establishing camps, for fear they will encourage Syrians to stay on in the country or threaten its security.

Derbas said the decision to establish the two camps had already been approved and that government representatives were meeting Thursday to discuss implementing the plan.

The minister had told several local dailies published on Thursday that the establishment of the camps is part of a pilot project aimed at studying the feasibility of housing more refugees in the border area.

“The camps have become more than a necessity because the spread of the displaced (Syrians) inside Lebanon is no longer acceptable,” Derbas said.

"The Council of the Ministers has taken a decision to set up camps for Syrian refugees, one in the Bekaa valley in the Masnaa area and one in the Abda area in northern Lebanon," Derbas said.

"Estimates are that each camp could accommodate 10,000 people," he added.

In a statement, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it was ready to cooperate with the project.

"In regard to the present proposal, we stand ready to work with the Minister of Social Affairs on reviewing possible sites and assessing their feasibility as requested," it said.

But it warned that the "overriding imperative" in selecting a site should be security.

"This includes making sure sites are in areas that are not prone to floods or erosion so as to support structures needed to accommodate refugees," the statement said.

"It also means that the locations must not be vulnerable to being compromised by armed elements which can threaten refugees and their hosts."

The minister's remarks came after a meeting of the ministerial committee tasked with following up the issue of the refugees.

The meeting preceded a scheduled visit by U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres.

It also came on the eve of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session.

Salam is expected to discuss the burden of the refugees with donor countries during his stay in New York next week.

The number of registered Syrian refugees who have escaped the fighting between troops loyal to President Bashar Assad and rebels has reached 1.3 million in Lebanon.

There are an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 unregistered Syrians.

The United Nations said last week that more than three million Syrians have fled the civil war ravaging their country to become refugees -- a million of them in the past year alone.