GENEVA: The head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church suggested on Wednesday that Syrian refugees should be housed in camps inside Syria, reflecting growing frustration among Lebanese over the burden imposed on their country by their neighbors’ war.
The United Nations has registered 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the conflict began three years ago, the highest concentration worldwide. They are housed in homes and local communities rather than refugee camps.
Cardinal Beshara Rai, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, told a news conference in Geneva that the presence of so many Syrians represented a huge economic, social, political and security burden for Lebanon.