Aoun Warns al-Rahi against Accepting President who May Approve 'Refugees Naturalization'
Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun warned Tuesday of an “international attempt” to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon, urging the Maronite patriarch to reject the election of a president who would approve such a move.
“There are several indications of an attempt by world powers to naturalize the refugees in Lebanon … There is a European conspiracy aimed at making Lebanon shoulder the greatest burden from the Syrian refugee crisis and we reject a second naturalization,” said Aoun after his bloc's weekly meeting.
“We warn everyone, especially the head of the Maronite church (Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi), against electing a president who would sign the decree of naturalizing the Syrians,” Aoun added.
He noted that any refugee who has a job in his homeland “must be returned to his country.”
“Those who visit their country and come back must also be stripped of the refugee status,” he added.
Aoun and his bloc had repeatedly warned that the Syrian refugee influx poses a threat to Lebanon at the political, social, economic, security and demographic levels.
The MP's remarks come a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron made a surprise visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon on Monday and said increased aid would help stem a major migration crisis in Europe.
The visit, which included talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, came as Cameron appointed a minister to oversee the resettlement of 20,000 Syrian refugees in Britain over the next five years.
Cameron said Britain was doubling its support for Lebanon's schools to 20 million pounds a year for the next three years to help them teach Syrian refugee children as well as Lebanese.
He said boosting aid to countries hosting refugees was key to tackling a migration crisis that has seen tens of thousands of people flooding into Europe seeking asylum.
Britain last week announced it would spend an additional 100 million pounds on Syrian refugees, 40 million of which will go to U.N. and other non-governmental groups working with refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Nearly two-thirds of that 40 million pounds will be spent in Lebanon, which is hosting more than 1.1 million refugees despite having a population of just four million citizens.
At a press conference after meeting Salam, Cameron acknowledged that the "humanitarian crisis in Syria is putting huge pressure" on Lebanon.
In total, more than four million Syrians have fled abroad as the conflict has left more than 240,000 people dead.
Y.R.
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