Lebanon rejects UN plan to pay Syrians’ aid in US dollar
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – The Lebanese government rejected on Friday a plan proposed by UNHCR to pay aid of Syrian refugees in Lebanon in the US dollar.
The UNHCR announced that Syrian refugees in Lebanon would be able to receive cash aid in dollars from late May, rather than in the unstable and devaluing Lebanese pound.
Lebanon’s caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar rejected the plan, saying, “How was this decision taken when the Ministry of Social Affairs responsible for this matter did not agree?”
He said that the UNHCR had proposed raising cash assistance to $140 – a basic $40 sum, plus $20 per family member, capped at five people, noting that “the amount is much higher than that of a first-level public sector worker.”
He stressed, “The majority of Lebanese popular opinion rejects Syrian displacement in Lebanon.”
Paying Syrians in dollars encourages them to stay in Lebanon….We need to get the wheel moving on returns, not staying,” caretaker Social Affairs Minister noted.
In recent weeks, the Lebanese government has ramped up efforts to deport refugees.
In 2022, Lebanon announced a plan to return 15,000 Syrian refugees to Syria. They deported the first batch in the autumn of that same year and included over 100 families through three border crossings with Syria in Homs and Damascus.
On May 24, Sheikhmos Ahmad, co-chair of the IDPs and Refugees Affairs Office affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) told North Press that seven families of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had reached AANES-held areas and settled in a camp north of Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria.
Late in April, the AANES expressed its readiness to receive Syrian refugees in Lebanon after Lebanese authorities increasingly deported refugees.