Report: Appeasing Fears over Naturalizing Refugees on Eve of U.N. Summit

International authorities have stressed the importance that Lebanon engages in the international summit for migrants and refugees that will convene in New York on September 20 and, in the UN General Assembly on refugees scheduled on September 19 in NY as well, An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

Diplomatic sources said that at the conferences Lebanon will receive significant financial and moral support, and that it will be an opportunity to convey a message to the world to assume responsibilities in helping Lebanon carry the burden of refugees, added the daily.

The UN General Assembly will host a high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam will attend the UN summit for refugees and migrants on Monday and other sessions of the UN General Assembly.

The sources added that the misconception with regard to the term “refugee resettlement”, that Lebanon had expressed reservation about, must be rectified.

They stated that the international community meant to resettle the refugees in a third country other than Lebanon if the war in Syria did not end, which means that the number of refugees in the host countries will decrease.

A high-level UN summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants could potentially be a “game changer” that will enhance protection for those forcibly displaced and otherwise on the move, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency had said.

The UN Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants will be held at the General Assembly in New York on September 19, and is to be attended by heads of state and government, ministers and leaders from the U.N. System and representatives of civil society, among others.

In May, the Lebanese council of ministers announced that it unanimously rejects any attempt to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon, after remarks attributed to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon stirred a storm of criticism in the country.

Ban Ki-moon had said in a report he submitted to the Vienna conference on Syria that refugees have the right to obtain the nationalities of the countries they live in.

Ban Ki-moon's reported remarks had prompted an urgent meeting for the Lebanese government's Syrian refugee cell which comprises Salam, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas and Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi.

In a statement before the cabinet session, Qazzi had said: "Ever since 1948, no international official has dared to raise the issue of naturalizing the Palestinians, so how could Ban Ki-moon mention the naturalization of Syrians seven times in a 26-page report?"

Five years into the Syria conflict, Lebanon hosts more than one million refugees from the war-torn country, according to the United Nations.

More than a third live in the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border.