Jumblat Says 'No Threat of Naturalization in Lebanon'

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat reassured Friday that Syrian refugees will not be naturalized in Lebanon, after a report prepared by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon sparked concerns in the country.

“It is our ethical and political duty to host the Syrian refugees, especially that Syrians will return to Syria when a solution looms there,” Jumblat said during a meeting with Lebanese expats at the Lebanese embassy in Kuwait.

“There is no threat of naturalization in Lebanon and we can organize things until a political solution is reached,” he added.

“There is no justification to launch racist stances against the Syrian people,” Jumblat went on to say.

Media reports had quoted Ban Ki-moon as saying that refugees have the right to obtain the nationalities of the countries they live in.

The reports drew responses from the Lebanese ministerial cell on refugees and the Lebanese cabinet, which announced Thursday that it unanimously rejects any attempt to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

But U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag reassured Friday that Ban Ki-moon's report “makes no mention of any specific country and seeks primarily to promote more collective action.”

“The report does not advocate in any specific case for naturalization or granting of citizenship for refugees. National policies and laws prevail with regard to issues of integration or citizenship,” she said.

“Potential integration is a sovereign question at the discretion of the Lebanese government. The Secretary-General has at no time called for the permanent settlement of Syrian refugees in Lebanon,” Kaag stressed.

Y.R.