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STORY: UNHCR / LEBANON GRANDI VISIT
TRT: 04:38
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: 19 JUNE 2025, BEIRUT, LEBANON
1. Various shots, High Commissioner Filippo Grandi meeting with Minister of Social Affairs Haneen El Sayyed
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“I'm very pleased that, with this government, we have started a very constructive discussion on how to translate the policy into a very practical operation that will allow many refugees, as many as possible as the deputy Prime minister said, to go back to Syria. And I have to tell you, we have been here, as you all know, for a long time, not only here but in the whole region. Many refugees want to go back, but, you know, there are many challenges. One is how to help them physically go back and then how to help them in their places of origin in Syria. And this is really the purpose of my mission.”
3. Med shot, El Sayyed
4. Med shot, Grandi,
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“Tomorrow, the 20th of June, is a very symbolic day for my organization. We call it World Refugee Day. And I chose to be in Syria on that day, to be in a place where we have the potential to have the largest refugee crisis in the world - the Syrian refugee crisis - turned around, and millions of people stop being refugees because they go back home. This is not something that will happen from one day to the other. It is complex, but we have to work in that direction.”
6. Various shots, Grandi meeting with El Sayyed
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“I want to make one appeal. I want to make an appeal to the international community. Lebanon and UNHCR and Syria cannot do this alone. They need help from the international community. I know Syria very well. I've been many, many times. Syria is a country that is on its knees. It needs reconstruction of infrastructure, of public services, of the economy, of their security system. There is good will there in spite of all the challenges, but we need international help. I am happy that the US President has announced that sanctions will be lifted. This is a major step in the right direction, in my opinion. I hope that now it will be followed, since there is space, by substantive investments in infrastructure, in creating jobs, the economy, in security as well, because the country needs security structure, security apparatus.”
8. Various shots, Grandi meeting with General, Joseph Aoun, President of the Republic of Lebanon
9. Various shots, Grandi meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Youssef Raggi
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“So, full appreciation for what Lebanon has done and continues to do for the people that are hosted here in spite of the challenges, but also a strong appeal from all our partners in Europe, in the Gulf, in the international financial institutions to help us do the work in Syria. It is a rare opportunity in this world of crises. Let's make it possible.”
11. Wide shot, exterior, Serail Building
12. Varius shots, Grandi meeting with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi today (19 Jun) appealed to the international community to make “substantive investments” in Syria, as more than two million Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons have returned to their homes since December.
Grandi spent the day meeting with Lebanese officials in Beirut, including President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Youssef Raggi, and Minister of Social Affairs Haneen El Sayyed.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “I'm very pleased that, with this government, we have started a very constructive discussion on how to translate the policy into a very practical operation that will allow many refugees, as many as possible as the deputy Prime minister said, to go back to Syria.”
Grandi said, “many refugees want to go back, but, you know, there are many challenges. One is how to help them physically go back and then how to help them in their places of origin in Syria. And this is really the purpose of my mission.”
He noted that on Friday (20 Jun) he will visit Syria, coinciding with World Refugee Day, and said, “I chose to be in Syria on that day, to be in a place where we have the potential to have the largest refugee crisis in the world - the Syrian refugee crisis - turned around, and millions of people stop being refugees because they go back home.”
The High Commissioner said, “this is not something that will happen from one day to the other. It is complex, but we have to work in that direction.”
He said, “Lebanon and UNHCR and Syria cannot do this alone. They need help from the international community,” and stressed that “Syria is a country that is on its knees. It needs reconstruction of infrastructure, of public services, of the economy, of their security system.”
Grandi welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s announcement that sanctions on Syria will be lifted.
He said, “this is a major step in the right direction, in my opinion. I hope that now it will be followed, since there is space, by substantive investments in infrastructure, in creating jobs, the economy, in security as well, because the country needs security structure, security apparatus.”
To conclude, Grandi expressed “full appreciation for what Lebanon has done and continues to do for the people that are hosted here in spite of the challenges” and issued a “strong appeal from all our partners in Europe, in the Gulf, in the international financial institutions to help us do the work in Syria.”
He said, “it is a rare opportunity in this world of crises. Let's make it possible.”
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