Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his counterparts in the Lebanese government on the removal of restrictions placed on Syrian refugees seeking to enter Lebanon.

I discussed the issue of Syrian refugees with the Lebanese Prime Minister and the Speaker for Parliament when I visited Lebanon in December. I paid tribute to Lebanon’s generosity as they host nearly 1.2 million registered refugees and made clear that the UK’s support, which is now around £160 million since the start of the Syria crisis, will continue. Following the announcement of new border regulations by the Lebanese authorities, our Ambassador in Lebanon alongside EU partners, reiterated to the Lebanese Prime Minister the international community’s concern that the new border regulations should adequately provide for the most vulnerable humanitarian cases.