REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIRUT -- Visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the international community should help solve the Syrian refugees crisis.
According to a statement by the UNHCR in Beirut, Guterres said the U.N. delegation's visit to Beirut is to express the "solidarity with Lebanon in light of the mass influx of refugees, and the ensuing strain on the country's economy, stability and society."
The U.N. official said that it was high-time for the international community to assume its responsibility to fully finance the refugees crisis in Lebanon," adding that the global donors should also pledge donations to Lebanese host communities and Lebanese nationals."
Lebanon hosts more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees, according to the UNHCR.
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that 3.8 billion dollars were pledged to refugees by international donors at a conference that convened on March 29 in Kuwait.
But reports said that only 700 million dollars would be allocated to Lebanon over the next two years, a third of what Lebanon's Social Affairs Minister Rachid Derbas says is needed.