The compounding crises presently unfolding in Lebanon make undertaking a plan to return Syrian refugees to their home country an insurmountable task, acting Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Musharrafieh told Sputnik on Wednesday
DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th November, 2020) The compounding crises presently unfolding in Lebanon make undertaking a plan to return Syrian refugees to their home country an insurmountable task, acting Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Musharrafieh told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"Lebanon is undergoing enough economic, health, material and financial pressures to undertake a plan to return the displaced Syrians," Musharrafieh said at the Damascus international conference on the repatriation of refugees.
According to the acting minister, the caretaker cabinet, which resigned following the devastating blast in Beirut on August 4, had drawn up a repatriation plan which has yet to be implemented.�
"The current Lebanese government, which is caretaker status, last July unanimously approved a policy plan for the return of Syrian refugees. On our part, as a government, there should be no problems in implementing this plan," Musharrafieh said.
He added that about a third of those on Lebanese territory today are filled with displaced Syrians. This makes Lebanon the country with the highest refugees per capita and has cost the nation upward of $40 billion.
Lebanon is currently undergoing an acute financial crisis borne of decades of economic mismanagement and political divvying. Unemployment and poverty are increasing as the Currency has gone into a tailspin.
