Abou Faour: 2,000 Syrian Refugees Entered Lebanon in One Day

Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour said around 2,000 people entered from Syria into Lebanon on Sunday, escaping the deadly crackdown by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad on protestors.

“Around 2,000 people entered Lebanese territories yesterday. Ten percent are families while the rest are youth,” Abou Faour told An Nahar daily published Monday.

“This will lead to some confusion in dealing with them,” he said.

Abou Faour stressed that his ministry can’t take care of the refugees unless they move from the Bekaa valley to northern Lebanon because the cabinet hasn’t tasked it with providing assistance to them in the East.

A large number of the refugees will return as soon as the security situation in their towns and villages improves, he said.

There are now over 7,000 Syrian refugees registered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the Higher Relief Council in northern Lebanon.

The movement of refugees came as the Lebanese army arrested a group of Syrian gunmen who had entered Lebanon through the border town of al-Qaa and seized a large cache of weapons.