Lebanon concerned over inflow of Syria refugees

“Syrian refugees represent 27% of Lebanon's population, while in Jordan they number 10% of the population and in Turkey 4%,” Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Tuesday.
 
    "The refugees are our people but we won't accept that they become the cause of a problem in Lebanon,” Mashnouq said, adding, the Lebanese government “does not have the assets or infrastructure to cope with these numbers.”
 
The Lebanese minister further called for measures to limit the inflow of the refugees, saying, “Curbing the influx hinges on two points: specifying who is a real refugee and limiting migration from safe Syrian regions.”
 
On April 3, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the number of the Syrian refugees who fled Syria and registered in Lebanon has exceeded one million.
 
UNHCR representative Ninette Kelley described the one million figure as a “devastating marker.”
 
    "Each one of these numbers represents a human life who, like us, have lives of their own, but who've lost their homes, they've lost their family members, have lost their future," Kelley said.
 
In June 2013, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman urged the UN Security Council to pay more attention to the burden that the influx of Syrian refugees has had on Lebanon.
 
On September 30, Lebanon’s Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abu Faour pleaded for more international support to tackle the huge influx of the refugees from Syria.
 
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside the country.