Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees following the introduction of visa requirements for Syrian nationals entering 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 towards over 1.1 million registered refugees, and made clear that the UK’s support for Lebanon, which has now reached 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 provide adequately for the most vulnerable humanitarian cases. UK officials have also shared our concerns about the situation with the Lebanon Country Director of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.