First Group of Syrian Refugees Leaves Lebanon for Germany
More than 100 Syrian refugees left Lebanon for Germany on Wednesday under the European country's relocation program for up to 5,000 displaced, the state-run National News Agency reported.
NNA said 107 refugees traveled from Rafik Hariri International Airport with the assistance of the German Embassy.
Germany has granted the exiles two-year residence permits and could extend them if the war in Syria continues.
"Germany's humanitarian assistance program provides for up to 5,000 places for Syrian refugees, and as such is the biggest relocation program currently in existence for the Syria crisis," Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), said Tuesday.
The overwhelming majority of the two million Syrians who have fled their conflict-torn homeland are in neighboring countries Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, which along with the UNHCR have appealed for more international help to shoulder the burden.
With no sign of an end to the Syrian civil war, which broke out in 2011, UNHCR has appealed to rich countries to offer a haven for some 12,000 of the most vulnerable refugees.
Besides Germany, Austria has offered 500 places. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland have pledged more than 1,650 places together.
The United States has also told the UNHCR that it was willing to consider an unspecified number of cases, and talks are under way with Britain, Fleming said.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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