EU providing Lebanon $42 million to aid refugees

Beirut: A delegation from the European Union visiting Lebanon says the EU is providing 37 million euros ($42 million) to help the Arab country cope with more than a million Syrian refugees.

Christos Stylianides, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, made the announcement Saturday after meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam in Beirut.

Stylianides later traveled to the eastern Bekaa Valley to meet Syrian refugees living in small camps.

He told reporters in the Bekaa: “Lebanon is not alone. The European Union stands by the government and the people of Lebanon.”

The UN refugees agency says Lebanon is hosting at least 1,150,000 Syrian refugees, a quarter the size of Lebanon’s own population of 4.5 million.