Lebanon says agreement reached with UN to hand over Syrian refugee data

Lebanon has made an agreement with the UN's refugee agency for the latter to hand over data on all Syrian refugees residing in the country.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced on Monday that the agreement was reached following a meeting with a delegation representing the UNHCR, local media reports said.

Bou Habib said that negotiations with UNHCR had begun over a year ago.

"This comes after a long process of negotiations that began a year ago during a meeting with the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, when we reached an initial promise to develop cooperation between the UN and the Lebanese sides," Bou Habib was quoted by local media as saying.

"Lebanon considers the handing over of data a sovereign right, similar to that of other countries, to be familiar with the identity of the people on their territories.

"This agreement also serves the interests of both parties, Lebanon and the UN, as well as the interests of donor countries in terms of mitigating the exploitation of donations," the minister added.

The UN has documented about 800,000 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, but the Lebanese government says the number is far greater.

Bou Habibi previously said that there were about two million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, adding that the figure threatened to disrupt the structure of Lebanese society.

Beirut has repeatedly called for the return of Syrian refugees – a plan rejected by the UNHCR, which said Syria was still not safe.

Most of the refugees fled Syria following a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests by the Assad regime in 2011, which was followed by indiscriminate regime bombing of civilians in opposition areas.

Rights groups say that refugees who return from Lebanon to Syria face arrest, torture, forcible conscription into the army, and even execution at the hands of Assad regime authorities.