Charbel Reiterates Calls for Donor Countries to Meet Pledges to Aid Syrian Refugees

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel reiterated on Saturday calls for the donor Arab and other states to meet their promises and pay the aid set to assist with the influx of Syrian refugees.

“The friendly countries that pledged to aid us during Kuwait conference should swiftly meet their promises to enhance the conditions of the refugees,” Charbel said during a meeting at his ministry in the presence of UNHCR Representative in Lebanon Ninette Kelley.

He also called on all countries to divide the burdens and to welcome as well Syrian refugees on their territories to share the responsibility.

Charbel pointed out that all the interior ministry agencies are on alert to carry out their duties within the available capabilities.

He hailed the efforts undertaken by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to aid the refugees and to ease their agonies.

Lebanon appealed in January for $180 million from Arab countries to help it meet the Syrian refugee influx.

The Lebanese government, which has promised to keep its border open to refugees, called in early December for 363 million dollars to cope with the influx.

The Arab League decided to send a team to Syria's neighboring countries to assess the status of refugees ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on January 30.

Around 97 percent of the refugees have fled to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's two-year conflict, which broke out after the army unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent, turning the uprising into a bloody insurgency.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon have soared to more than 400,000 the U.N.'s refugee body said in a recent report.