BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) Lebanon has already spent close to $25 billion on handling the influx of migrants and refugees and urges the international community to lend a helping hand moving ahead, President Michel Aoun said on Monday.
Aoun was speaking at a conference of the ambassadors of the International Support Group for Lebanon � the organization includes the United Nations, the Arab League, the European Union, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom.
"Lebanon today is experiencing the two biggest problems that the world has faced in the past 75 years. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected a larger part of the world, the problem of refugees is something we have to face all on our own. Our costs to this end have exceeded $25 billion, according to international organizations, and there is no solution visible in the foreseeable future," the Lebanese leader was quoted as saying by his press service.
Aoun said the issue was further aggravated by the rampant spread of COVID-19, since any potential outbreak in migrant facilities would bear additional costs. Lebanon's economy is already overwhelmed due to the previous 30 years of erroneous economic and financial policy and 15 years of war before that, he said.
At a 2018 conference in Paris dedicated to Lebanese development, foreign donors pledged $11 billion worth of funding if the country succeeded in implementing a set of reforms. Since then, however, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 60 percent of its value vis-a-vis US Dollar.
"Our program of reforms needs international financial support, especially from friendly countries and members of the International Support Group for Lebanon ... We count strongly on the $11 billion CEDRE [Paris conference] funding that will be invested in the development of Lebanese infrastructure projects," Aoun said
Of Lebanon's population of 4 million, half are refugees from Syria and 600,000 refugees from Palestine. The Lebanese authorities have repeatedly urged foreign actors to step in and support the crumbling economy.
Since mid-October of last year, the middle Eastern country has been shaken by anti-government protests caused by exacerbating economic crisis. The government eventually changed in Lebanon, but no particular relief ensued in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent set of response measures, such declaring a state of emergency, halting services and closing businesses.
