Derbas: Lebanon Implementing Decision on Stopping Refugee Flow

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas has stressed that the Lebanese authorities were implementing a decision taken late last month not to accept Syrians as refugees if they come from safe areas or regions far from the Lebanese border.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published on Thursday, Derbas said he informed U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, about the move.

“Lebanon will accept the political asylum that only results from the fighting on the Lebanese-Syrian border,” he stressed.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has announced that displaced Syrians registered with the UNHCR should not return home as of June 1, warning they will lose their refugee status.

This measure is based on the concern about security in Lebanon and relations between the refugees and Lebanese citizens in areas hosting them and to prevent any friction, he said in a statement.

More than 1 million of Syrians are in Lebanon, leaving the country, home to 4.5 million people, struggling to cope with the massive influx of refugees.

The Syrian conflict started in March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's rule that deteriorated into civil war.

The fighting has uprooted 9 million people from their homes, with over 6 million Syrians seeking shelter in safer parts of the country and at least 2.7 million fleeing to neighboring countries.

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