Preparations to send a large group of Syrian refugees home from Lebanon are underway, Russia's National Defense Control Center head Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Preparations to send a large group of Syrian refugees home from Lebanon are underway, Russia's National Defense Control Center head Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said on Wednesday.
"Their number can reach up to 7,000 people," he said at a joint meeting of Russian and Syrian interdepartmental coordination centers on the return of refugees to Syria.
Mizintsev added said that Lebanese migration authorities approved only 30-40 percent of Syrian refugees' applications to fly home.
"One of the routes of refugees from Europe to Syria, in particular from Belgium, is air transportation to Beirut, followed by going to Syria by land. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the Lebanese migration authorities, no more than 30-40 percent of Syrians out of the total number of Syrian applicants are allowed to fly," he said.
Mizintsev also praised the work of the Lebanese authorities, but mentioned the nonconstructive position of "many Western countries" that led to practically no funding for this process on the part of the international community.
"International humanitarian organizations are actively involved in the work to assist Syrian refugees, but they are forced to act taking into account the views of donor countries that seek to use the situation with migrants to achieve their own domestic and foreign policy goals," he stressed.
Mizintsev noted that more than $16 billion was spent annually to support millions of Syrian refugees in Europe, while to finance the entire process of return of 1.7 million refugees to Syria, only $12 billion needed to be allocated in three years.
Syria is gradually recovering from a now seven-year conflict. Russia actively supports the voluntary return of refugees, and assists the Syrian government in rebuilding infrastructure and providing humanitarian aid. According to the Russian Defense Ministry's estimates, some 300,000 Syrians have returned to the country from abroad over the past 2.5 years, while more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in nine countries have expressed their desire to repatriate.
