Lebanese official stresses Syrians plight in his country

Former Lebanese Interior Minister, Ziyad Baroud, an expert on the refugees' impact on Lebanon, and member of Beirut Institute's Advisory Board, on Tuesday called for the convening of an international conference to deal with the impact of the continued influx of Syrian refugees on Lebanon and other countries' infrastructure. The figure warned that the refugees' dismal plight would contribute to the increase of extremism in the region. "The International Conference is needed not only for the humanitarian side of the crisis," he told KUNA during a press conference hosted by the UN Correspondents' Association (UNCA). "The international community should realize that this is not just a Lebanese problem. Very soon, it will be a regional problem," he warned. "I did not talk much about extremism, but that's what we are facing" as extremism thrives on the dire humanitarian situation in various communities, he explained. He added, there are 1.2 million Syrian refugees all over Lebanon, noting that the Lebanese people do not favor the idea of designating camps for them, out of concern for demographic considerations. He also stressed that the Lebanese "open door policy" towards the Palestinian and Syrian refugees "should be rewarded." The Lebanese Government "cannot keep responding to the increasing needs of the refugees," he stressed. "The international community is concerned and the Arab countries are concerned too." He described the bombing earlier in Lebanon as a "negative signal ... It tries to take the Lebanese people to the hostile environment it used to live in," stressing that Lebanon is in need of a "safety net." Baroud and Prince Rashid El-Hassan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hashemite Charitable Organization, gave a presentation for the Security Council members and Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, at a luncheon hosted by Beirut Institute's Founder and Executive Chairman Raghida Dergham, on the impact of the continued influx of the Syrian refugees on the infrastructure of both countries and their inability to cope without additional assistance. According to the Institute's Policy Paper this year, "regional and international actors must pay serious attention to the impact of refugees on the fragile infrastructure of Lebanon, as well as to the security threat this poses to the country. Tension between Syrian refugees and the hosting community will grow with their expected prolonged stay." It added that the "international community needs to seek new approaches, and Arab countries must accept to share the burden beyond the traditional pledges. Ideas such as setting camps on the borders inside the Syrian territory need to be discussed urgently and seriously, and donor countries must be willing to host refugees as part of sharing the burden." "Arab countries, particularly GCC countries, have both the capacity and the ethical responsibility to host refugees from Syria. Nordic countries may wish to limit their aid to funding but they must not shun refugees completely," it stressed. The Office of the UN High-Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reacted to the Institute's efforts saying it "appreciates" its recent roundtable on "Ethics and Politics': Response to the Plight of Refugees." "It was an interesting discussion, and one to inspire greater engagement by all factors of the society represented at the event," UNHCR said in a statement. Beirut Institute is an independent non-partisan Arab think-tank with activities and events in multiple locations across the Arab region and the world.