Lebanon Hopes for Additional Funding at Syria Donors Conference

Lebanese officials are all hopes that the international community would help Lebanon confront the Syrian refugee crisis during a donors conference set to be held in London next month.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said that a meeting for the ministerial refugee affairs committee chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Monday tackled Lebanon's demands to confront the crisis.

“Lebanon had submitted during previous conferences a document on its most important needs to confront this crisis. Some amendments have been introduced to it,” he told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Tuesday.

The February 4 conference mainly aims to raise new funding to meet the needs of all those affected by the Syria crisis within the country itself and by supporting neighboring countries.

It also aims to help create the right conditions inside Syria, including in education, so the refugees can resume normal lives when they return home.

Derbas said that the international community has not provided Lebanon all of its needs. But “we will continue to try because we have nothing to lose.”

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees. Syria's war has killed more than 260,000 people and forced millions from their homes.

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