Salam enlists help from Arab states to cope with displaced refugees in Lebanon

BEIRUT, Aug 22 (KUNA) -- Prime Minister Tammam Salam, in a meeting with Arab ambassadors on Friday, appealed to their countries to assist Lebanon in the cost of hosting increasing numbers of Palestinian refugees, displaced from their camps in Syria due to the ongoing war in that country.
The appeal came in the official form of a memorandum from the Government of Lebanon to the ambassadors which President Salam handed to them in his meeting with them today.
There are over 80,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria who currently live in the Nahr el Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, a camp that is beyond its capacity for housing that many people and is in dire need for improving the living conditions of the displaced refugees, said the memorandum.
It further said that there is a deficit of at least USD 280 million in the funds allocated to look after the displaced refugees, who eventually seek to be repatriated to their refugee camps in Syria.
The increasing numbers of the displaced Palestinians in Lebanon has become a huge financial and social burden on the host country which often turns to Arab donors to help it with the onerous task of hosting so many distraught refugees.
Salam handed the memorandum to ambassadors of Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, and to the charges d'affaires of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Algeria. (end) mah.ajs