Suleiman: Pledges to Share Burden of Refugees Not Sufficient
President Michel Suleiman lamented on Friday that the international community was not sufficiently sharing the burden of the displaced Syrians, who have put a severe strain on Lebanon's economy.
Suleiman told the ambassadors of major powers and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly that “the participation of countries in sharing the burden of Syrian refugees is not sufficient.”
“We should follow up the funding mechanism through the support of the World Bank,” he said referring to a series of pledges made at an International Support Group for Lebanon meeting held in New York last month.
Suleiman reiterated the need to establish U.N.-protected refugee camps inside Syria to facilitate the return of the displaced.
The World Bank has said in a report that spillover from the Syrian war has cost Lebanon billions of dollars, deeply damaged its economy and harshly strained social services such as health, education and electricity.
About 2,000 Syrian refugees are arriving every day now. Based on current trends, 1.3 million Syrian refugees could be in Lebanon by the end of this year, according to the report presented at the New York meeting.
It estimates that the total costs of spillover will shave close to 3 percentage points off gross domestic product growth per year between 2012 and 2014. Unemployment will double to more than 20 percent and about 170,000 additional Lebanese will be plunged into poverty on top of some 1 million currently living below the poverty line.
During the New York meeting, the international community and U.N. officials praised "the extreme generosity" of Lebanon in keeping its borders open to the refugees.
The meeting announced $339 million in additional humanitarian aid in response to the Syria crisis, including $74 million for Lebanon to support Syrian refugees.
Suleiman said the meeting was “successful” but stressed “there should be an encouragement to hold a new donors conference to assess the funding announced at the Kuwait conference.”
Kuwait hosted the first donors conference in January, when participating nations pledged $1.5 billion for Syrian refugees. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has already called on the Emir of Kuwait to host a second conference.
The U.N. launched a record $5.2-billion aid appeal in June to fund operations in Syria and neighboring countries, including Lebanon. The appeal aims to raise $3.8 billion for refugees and $1.4 billion for operations in Syria.
In his meeting with the ambassadors at Baabda Palace on Friday, Suleiman encouraged holding separate international meetings on each of Lebanon's sectors affected by the Syrian crisis, such as the refugees, the support for the army and support for several institutions.
After the meeting, Plumply said that the impact of the Syrian crisis is becoming more acute. He underlined the need for strong and coordinated international support.
The high-level meeting organized by UNHCR in Geneva on September 30 had focused on the need for greater burden-sharing, including resettlement, he said.
“At a meeting convened by the World Bank on October 12 in Washington, the Government of Lebanon had submitted a “roadmap for priority interventions for stabilization from the Syrian crisis” prepared in conjunction with the Bank and the U.N. which was positively received,” he said.
“A proposed coordination mechanism to support the Lebanese Armed Forces’ five-year capabilities development plan is under consideration, and the LAF and UNIFIL have agreed a coordination mechanism to facilitate assistance with equipment and training offered in the framework of the Strategic Dialogue,” he added.
The ambassadors, who met with Suleiman, called for the formation of a new cabinet, looked for the resumption of dialogue and stressed again the importance of commitment by all parties to the Baabda Declaration, Plumbly told reporters.
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