World Bank Chief Sounds Alarm over Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim warned that Lebanon is heading towards a “disaster” over the alarming influx of Syrian refugees into its territories.
He called on the international community to give a greater support to Lebanon, which has allowed more than 760,000 Syrian refugees to settle since fighting broke out in Syria more than two and a half years ago.
“We need to do much more or we risk catastrophe in Lebanon,” Kim said in a speech at George Washington University on the eve of the World Bank Group/IMF Annual Meetings.
caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abou Faour said from Geneva that Lebanon counted by Monday evening some 769,000 Syrians registered or in the process of registering as refugees, pointing out that on Monday morning the number had been 763,000.
Including all the unregistered Syrians, the actual number is around 1.3 million, he said, or about 30 percent of the Lebanese population.
Monday's Geneva conference will form three committees to resolve the Syrian refugee crisis – one that deals with finances, the other works on sending them to other countries and the third to find refuge to them inside Syria.
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