Ministerial Panel Agrees to Prepare Paper on Refugee Crisis

Prime Minister Saad Hariri presided Wednesday afternoon over a meeting for the ministerial panel tasked with addressing the Syrian refugee crisis and the conferees agreed to prepare a work paper in this regard, the PM's office said.

“The meeting involved discussions on how to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon from all aspects,” the office added in a statement.

The conferees also tackled “the aid that is being offered by the U.N. to Lebanon and means to enforce the law regarding illegal Syrian labor.”

The meeting comes amid controversy in the country over calls for “returning Syrian refugees to their country.”

While Hizbullah, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies are in favor of such a move, al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Lebanese Forces have rejected any communication with Damascus in this regard, insisting that such an issue should go through the United Nations.