Lebanon Thwarts Attempt to Have a Permanent Settlement for Refugees

Lebanon has been pushed to sign the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees after more than 1.5 million Syrians sought refuge in the country since the eruption of the war in the neighboring country in 2011, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas thwarted the plot days before attending a conference in Berlin on Syrian refugees.

According to As Safir, Turkey largely contributed to issuing a document at the Berlin conference, which is set to be held at the German foreign ministry on October 28, under which a clause states that Lebanon should sign the Convention on the refugees.

The document is part of the closing statement of the conference, which will later be given legitimacy through a U.N. Security Council presidential statement, the daily said.

The 1951 Convention, which Lebanon has not signed, is the key legal document in defining who are refugees, their rights and the legal obligations of states.

Lebanon is already suffering from the presence of more than 350,000 Palestinian refugees.

According to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon - a country of more than four million inhabitants - most of them living in 12 camps.

In addition to that, the rise in the number of displaced Syrians in Lebanon to around 1.5 million since the eruption of the civil war in their country in March 2011 has severely affected the nation's already ailing economy.

Many in Lebanon fear that by granting the refugees more basic rights, this would lead to their permanent settlement in the country and alter the demographic map.

Bassil warned on Wednesday against turning Lebanon into a country for refugees under “international dictations.”

In similar remarks to As Safir, Derbas said any attempt to have a permanent settlement for refugees in Lebanon would have “dangerous repercussions.”

Both Bassil and Derbas rejected the clause in the closing statement of the Berlin conference, saying the Lebanese authorities would not accept that the Syrian refugee crisis turns into a status quo.