BEIRUT — Lebanon has begun efforts to stop the flow
of Syrian refugees into the tiny country, already host to 1 million people who
fled the 3-year-old conflict, a Cabinet minister said Monday.
Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas told reporters
that Lebanon will not accept Syrians as refugees if they come from safe areas
or regions far from the Lebanese border. Derbas, who spoke after a meeting of
the ministerial committee in charge of refugee affairs, said they have started
efforts to set up refugee camps inside Syria or in the no man’s land between
the two countries.
Activists say more than 160,000 people have been
killed since the Syrian conflict started in March 2011 as largely peaceful
protests against President Bashar Assad’s rule that deteriorated into civil
war. The fighting has uprooted 9 million people from their homes, with over 6
million Syrians seeking shelter in safer parts of the country and at least 2.7
million fleeing to neighboring countries.
