British PM David Cameron visits Lebanese refugee camp

Beirut, Sept 14: British Prime Minister David Cameron visited a refugee camp while on his first visit to Lebanon, the media reported on Monday.

Cameron met a family in a camp in the Bekaa Valley who are due to be flown to Britain, BBC reported.

"I wanted to come here to see for myself and to hear for myself stories of refugees," the prime minister said

"I want to focus on how we help Syrian refugees here in Lebanon, in Jordan, how we make sure we discourage people from making this dangerous journey to Europe but instead we take people from these camps and we make them welcome in the UK, in our country," Cameron said.

"We make sure there are homes for them to go to, schools for their children, a warm welcome in Britain."

Britain is set to accept up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.

Lebanon is to receive 29 million pounds ($44 million) of the additional 100 million pounds in Britain's aid for Syria and surrounding countries announced by the prime minister earlier this month.

This will pay for food packages for thousands of refugees, as well as clean water, blankets, stoves, mattresses, counselling support and play areas for children.

This country is host to 1.1 million Syrian refugees, which is more than a quarter of Lebanon's population.

IANS