BEIRUT, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Sunday called for the world to step up efforts for Syrian refugees to return home.
"Lebanon calls on the international community to exert every possible effort and to ensure the suitable conditions for the safe return of the displaced Syrians to their country, particularly to the accessible stable regions or the de-escalation zones, without linking this return to the political solution," Aoun said in a speech at the ongoing Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Lebanese capital Beirut.
Aoun said that Lebanon has been shouldering for years the "heaviest burden" of the displacement of Syrian and Palestinian refugees, who make up about half of the Lebanese population with inadequate resources.
Since conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, more than 1 million people have fled across the border to Lebanon.
