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BEIRUT, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas asserted Tuesday that the true number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is 1.5 million, not 1.1 million recorded by the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees, the National News Agency reported.
Derbas, who received at his office a delegation of the justice committee at the European Union that discussed with him the condition of displaced Syrians, noted "in addition to the 1.5 million Syrians, Lebanon hosts 500,000 Palestinian refugees as well."
He stressed "if the international community thought that Lebanon was able to uphold two million refugees across its lands to become citizens, they would believe an absurd thing."
Derbas hoped that a positive cooperation would be conducted between Lebanon and European Union in favor of projects serving the return of displaced people to their homeland.
