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The European Union’s declaration that it rejects the repatriation of Syrian refugees in the foreseeable future has triggered a large outcry in Lebanon which is hosting more than 2 million war-displaced Syrians.
Politicians resorted to their twitter accounts on Friday, June 16, to denounce the statement made by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the end of the 7th conference for “Supporting the future of Syria and the region” that took place in Brussels a day earlier.
Former president Michel Aoun’s office issued a communiqué in which it lambasted Borell, and asked him “who gave you the right to juggle with Lebanon’s future?”
“Keeping the displaced in host countries and binding their return home to a political settlement jeopardizes the future of our country, a matter that we utterly reject,” the communiqué said, stressing that “Lebanon will not pay the cost of the war in Syria.”
“The scheme of merging the refugees into the Lebanese society is tantamount to a systematic destruction of Lebanon. It should be rejected by both, the Lebanese and Syrian peoples, because of the fallouts that it will have on the two (neighboring) countries that should coordinate to secure a safe and dignified repatriation of the refugees,” it added.
MP Georges Atallah, of the Free Patriotic Movement’s bloc “Strong Lebanon” accused Borell of being among “conspirators” against Lebanon.
“You want to carry on the conspiracy by keeping the displaced Syrians (in Lebanon)… By God they will go back in spite of you and every conspirator against Lebanon. We would back a solution of the refugee crisis that would have them sent to your country,” Atallah said in a tweet.
Druze politician and president of Tawheed party said in a tweet: “Western hypocrisy on the issue of the displaced is very clear in EU meetings… They want to manipulate the displaced, not to return them to their homes. But when Washington changes its stance, European voices will just disappear.”
On his part, Caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Charafeddine, declared that “obstructing the return of displaced Syrians to their homeland is aimed at putting pressure on the Syrian regime because the EU is not happy with the outcome of the Syrian war.”
In a talk with Voice of Lebanon Radio, Charafefddine cautioned that “the presence of such a large number of Syrian refugees might encompass extremists that follow salafi doctrines and who could be exploited by sleeping cells to destabilize Lebanon.”
Other MPs, including Lebanese Forces (LF) parliamentarian Razi Hajj, criticized the Lebanese government’s failure to put firmly on the table of the Brussels meeting “the subject of organizing the return” of the displaced, instead of “their chaotic presence all over Lebanon.”
He tweeted: “Brussels conference was less than ordinary in an exceptionally (critical) time.”
At the end of the Brussels meeting, Borrell declared that the EU does not support the return of Syrians to their country unless it is “voluntary”, safe, and monitored by international groups.
