Venetia Rainey
Countries other than Syria’s immediate neighbors must take in more refugees, Lebanon is expected to insist at a conference in Geneva Tuesday.
The international conference on Syrian refugees in Switzerland’s capital aims at discussing resettling refugees in third countries.
Representing Lebanon, which hosts around 1.2 million Syrian refugees, will be Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas.
He will make a speech to those present that will outline the desperateness of the situation in Lebanon – where more than one in five people are now Syrian refugees – and push for alternatives, including increased resettlement outside of Syria’s neighbors and the creation of safe zones within Syria itself.
“The minister’s speech will involve thanking the countries [present] for the effort and their support for Lebanon, but also saying that the numbers taken in by them are very small compared to the numbers in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, and that more needs to be done,” said a Lebanese source in Geneva.
The source said there was no indication yet of what reaction the speech would get.
Also present at the conference, convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, are Lebanon’s Ambassador in Geneva Najla Riachi Assaker and Derbas’ adviser on humanitarian and international affairs Hala Helou.
Speaking to the Central News Agency, a minister said that Lebanon had prepared a working paper for the conference.
The minister, who requested to remain anonymous, said that the paper included a list of countries who were willing and able to host Syrian refugees.
That is, countries that had enough space, job opportunities and were in need of additional working force where Syrian refugees can have a dignified life. The paper mentions Sudan as an example and calls for asking Syrian refugees about what country they would choose to live in.
Also, the paper demands that the U.N. Security Council specifies safe zones in Syria, according to the minister. Once this happens, Syrian refugees would be asked to choose one of these zones to live in after it is confirmed that they are safe.
Finally, the paper asks some European countries to host a specific number of Syrian refugees and not be selective when it comes to the sect of refugees that it accepts to receive.
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