MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2020) The Lebanese government is in the process of forming a steering committee to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, Dr. Assem Abi Ali, General Supervisor of the Lebanese Crisis Response Plan told Sputnik in an interview.
Headed by the country's Ministry of Social Affairs and migration authority, the committee aims to aid the voluntary return of the roughly 1.5 million Syrian refugees residing in the country by ensuring that their documents are compliant with the laws and regulations of neighboring Syria.
"In addition to that, we will have an inter-ministerial committee that will include other line ministries, such as the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to ensure that the documents of the Syrian displaced are there and to push for having all their papers and documents abiding by the laws and regulations of the Syrian government," Dr. Abi Ali told Sputnik over the phone.
Authorities in Lebanon and Syria have been jointly developing a plan for the voluntary return of Syrian refugees to their homeland since April 2019. These efforts materialized into an action-plan that was approved by the Lebanese cabinet in July, shortly before the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab in the wake of the August 4 Beirut port blast.
