The UN’s high commissioner for refugees called during a visit to Lebanon on Thursday for the “sustainable” return of Syrian refugees to their home country following the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad.
According to Lebanese authorities, the country hosts nearly two million Syrians — around 800,000 of whom are registered with the UN — making it home to the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.
“My visit to Lebanon is part of a regional visit to explore how best to support returning Syrian refugees,” High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement after a meeting with new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
“We want to ensure that these returns are sustainable, and this will require improved security and political stability as well as the respect of the rights of all communities in Syria, and the international community’s support for recovery and reconstruction of a country that has been devastated by years of war.”
Grandi also hailed “a hopeful moment” for the region following Assad’s fall, saying it had “created an opening to solving a prolonged humanitarian crisis”.
During their meeting, Aoun called for the return of Syrian refugees to their country “as soon as possible”, and asked Grandi’s agency, the UNHCR, to begin “organising return convoys”, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.
The UNHCR says more than 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned home since opposition groups toppled Assad in early December.
Grandi said that he would also visit “Syria to meet the new authorities and discuss the potential for more refugees to return from neighbouring countries”.
Syria’s civil war began in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, leading to the deaths of more than half a million people and displacement of half the country’s pre-war population.