Lebanon welcomes efforts to ensure return of Syria refugees

Lebanon's prime minister says he welcomes international efforts to ensure the return of Syrian refugees to their homes and awaits a roadmap being developed by the Russian ministry of defence on the matter.

Saad Hariri says in a statement issued by his office on Tuesday that he hopes the plan, in coordination with the US administration, the United Nations and other relevant parties, will be a serious effort to resolve the refugee crisis.

Last week, Russia's Defence Ministry said it proposed to the United States the creation of a joint group, along with Jordan, to organize refugee returns.

Close to 1 million Syrians are registered with the UN's refugee agency in Lebanon, a burden that the cash-strapped Lebanese government says it can no longer bear.

"Specific proposals on how work could be organised to ensure that refugees can return home have been sent to the American side," senior ministry official, General Mikhail Mizintsev, said in a statement on Friday.

The proposals "take into account the agreements reached by the Russian and American presidents during their meeting in Helsinki" on July 16.

It could include setting up a Russian-US-Jordanian monitoring group in Jordan and Lebanon, and projects that over 1.7 million Syrian refugees will be able to return home in the near future.

Preliminary assessments indicated 890,000 refugees could return to Syria from Lebanon in the near future, in addition to 300,000 from Turkey and 200,000 from European Union countries.

Syrian refugees would likely be reluctant to return home while the current regime remains in place, wary they would be targeted by its intelligence agents as potential dissidents.

Syria has some of the worst prison conditions in the world, where torture and summary executions are routine.