Lebanon will issue new policy to address the high influx of Syrian refugees to the country, social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said on Thursday.

After a meeting on Syrian refugees headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Derbas said that "the government is about to take clear positions on the issue of Syrian refugees in order to be able to face this plight."

He said that Lebanon is receiving about 50,000 displaced Syrians every month, or one for every minute. "According to the UN Higher Refugees Commission report on Wednesday, there are more than one million Syrian refugees registered officially in Lebanon. "

Derbas said that his country had decided to confront this issue "from different perspectives used in the past, as Lebanon cannot carry the burden any more on itself, neither economically nor socially, and especially not from the demographic, educational and health perspectives."

But the minister declined to reveal the guidelines of the new policy, only saying that "the ideal solution for Lebanon is that those refugees return to their homeland, but since most of them have lost their homes because of the ongoing military action, probably erecting safe camps for them will be a feasible solution. "

He added that "this solution cannot be applied without the consent of the Syrian government or if the refugees refuse to return in the current circumstances."

Lebanon has adopted so far the policy of "open border" with the Syrians fleeing the ongoing violence in their homeland.

More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria since the conflict between the Syrian army and armed rebels started in 2011.