Lebanese minister calls for deporting Syrian refugees

A Lebanese minister has given a call to deport the large number of Syrian refugees who have arrived in Lebanon in the wake of ongoing civil war in their own country.

Lebanon should stop receiving refugees unless in exceptional cases and the Syrians already in Lebanon should be deported as recently, 87 percent of lawbreakers in Lebanon were Syrian nationals, reported Xinhua citing caretaker Energy Minister Gebran Bassil during a press conference Friday.

He, however, added that the Syrians could be deported in a humanitarian manner.

There are currently 760,000 Syrians seeking shelter in Lebanon and the figure would hit one million by the end of the year, according to the UN report.

The Lebanese officials have repeatedly call on international communities to help the country shoulder the heavy burden imposed by the massive influx of the Syrian refugees.

A recent World Bank report estimated that the Syrian conflict would cost Lebanon about $7.5 billion from 2012 to 2014.