{"id":62144,"date":"2018-06-13T17:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=62144"},"modified":"2018-06-13T16:38:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T14:38:30","slug":"23-00-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=62144","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon Foreign Minister Escalates Refugee Row With UN Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Lebanon Foreign Minister Escalates Refugee Row With UN Agency<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Photo: Reuters \/ Remo Casilli.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s caretaker foreign minister escalated his row with the UN refugee agency UNHCR on Wednesday, accusing it at a news conference of working to stop refugees from returning to Syria.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNHCR<\/strong> has denied similar accusations, saying it supports the return of refugees when it is safe for them to go back to Syria and helps those who choose to return with their documentation. It had no immediate reaction to the latest accusation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir policy is to forbid the return,\u201d Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said. \u201cThe Lebanese policy is to encourage the return. Forbid, encourage. Stop, facilitate. That\u2019s it,\u201d Bassil said during the news conference in the town of Arsal, where he spoke alongside Syrian refugees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UN has registered about a million refugees in Lebanon \u2014 nearly a quarter of Lebanon\u2019s population. The Lebanese government, which puts the figure at 1.5 million, says it wants them to start going back to territory where fighting is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bassil said on Wednesday the burden of hosting Syrian refugees seven years into the conflict that drove them to flee had grown \u201cunbearable,\u201d blaming the crisis for the collapse of the economy and emigration of Lebanese citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, Bassil ordered a freeze on applications by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for residency permits for its staff, saying it was intimidating refugees into staying in Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some 19 UNHCR staff members are affected by the Lebanese residency permit freeze, she said, and the agency\u2019s spokesman in Geneva said it hopes the decision will be reversed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bassil accuses UNHCR of discouraging refugees from going home by asking them questions about potential difficulties they face upon return, including possible military conscription, damage to housing and lack of UN support in parts of Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have disputes with them, but it\u2019s time to tell them enough,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UNHCR favored the return of all refugees when it was safe for them to go home, its Lebanon representative, Mireille Girard, told Reuters on Tuesday. It speaks to refugees in all countries when they are preparing to return home to make sure it can give them enough support and protection, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another senior UN official, the deputy special coordinator for Lebanon Philippe Lazzarini, was quoted late on Tuesday as saying it would be \u201cinconceivable\u201d for the body to oppose refugees who wanted to go home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect refugees\u2019 individual decision to return home and would never, never discourage the return from taking place based on their decision,\u201d Hariri\u2019s office quoted Lazzarini as saying during a meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s government is operating on a caretaker basis because prime minister designate Saad al-Hariri has not yet formed a new cabinet after parliamentary elections on May 6.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lebanon Foreign Minister Escalates Refugee Row With UN Agency Reuters and Algemeiner Staff Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Photo: Reuters \/ Remo Casilli. Lebanon\u2019s caretaker foreign minister escalated his row with the UN refugee agency UNHCR on Wednesday, accusing it at a news conference of working to stop refugees from returning to Syria. UNHCR has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62162,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62144\/revisions\/62162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}