Ambassador of Lebanon to Romania Rana Mokaddem declared on Tuesday in Cluj that a political solution enabling the Syrian refugees to return home, in conditions of peace, would be one of the best to end this immigrant crisis, which is one of the most serious problems faced by the world from the end of the Second World War.
The Lebanese diplomat held, in front of students of the Faculty of European Studies at Babes-Bolyai University, a conference on "The Lebanese Experience in Addressing Refugee Crisis: Lessons Learned".
"Lebanon has distanced itself politically from the war in Syria, ever since the beginning of the crisis, but from the very beginning it has demanded and still demands a political solution. A solution that addresses the needs of Syrians to have peace in Syria and so that they may return home. But they cannot go back if there is still war. The Lebanese might return if the situation is better, because we are close to Syria, but you cannot tell someone whose country is at war to go home," said Rana Mokaddem.
She evoked the conditions in which Lebanon, a country with only a few million inhabitants, deals with a community of over one million Syrian refugees.
According to the Lebanese diplomat with all aid provided by donor countries - the EU, the USA and countries in the Arab region - the situation can be described as "difficult". Some of the biggest problems encountered are providing education for children of refugees, but also health issues, for their entire community.
Asked how she sees the fact that many of the refugees want to reach Western European countries, the ambassador specified that the problem is not whether they can be allowed to leave for these destinations or not, but how to get over this crisis.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Lebanon took in 1.1 million Syrians who fled their country torn by war after the outbreak of the rebellion against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.
However, the authorities estimate that the number of refugees living in Lebanon amounts to nearly 1.5 million people.
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