NowLebanon - Abu Faour: Cabinet not taking care of Syrian refugees in Bekaa, 22 April 2012

Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour said in an interview published on Sunday that “the cabinet neither assigned the Social Affairs Ministry nor the Higher Relief Council to take care of the Syrian refugees in the Bekaa.”

“The cabinet is fulfilling its duties toward the refugees in North [Lebanon]… [as opposed] to the ones in the Bekaa area,” Abu Faour told Al-Mustaqbal newpaper.

He also said that the cabinet did not have a plan to tackle the issue of Syrian refugees in the Bekaa.

The minister added that there was “a European decision to support the Syrian refugees,” adding that EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst and Belgian Ambassador to Lebanon Colette Taquet called him and asked him to prepare a plan for tackling the issue, and to submit the requirements for providing such help to refugees.

According to the UNHCR, there are currently around 8,500 displaced Syrians registered in the Bekaa Valley, and more than 9,000 in Wadi Khaled and Tripoli.

Thousands of Syrians have fled the unrest in their country, which according to UN has left over 9,000 people killed since protests erupted in strife-stricken Syria in mid-March 2011.

Lebanon’s political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp.

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