British PM arrives in Lebanon amid refugee crisis

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Beirut on Monday for a one-day visit to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis gripping the Middle East and Europe, a Lebanese government source said.

Cameron was to visit a refugee camp in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon, the source said. The country hosts more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees.

He was also due to hold talks on the refugee crisis with his Lebanese counterpart Tammam Salam.

Meanwhile on Monday, Britain also announced that it had appointed a minister to deal specifically with the 20,000 Syrian refugees that the country has agreed to resettle from camps bordering the war-torn country.

“The queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Richard Harrington MP as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State jointly at the Home Office, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Department for International Development,” said a statement from the Downing Street office of David Cameron.

Last week, Cameron announced that Britain would take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years from countries neighboring war-torn Syria.

Cameron has been under pressure internationally and domestically to address the refugee crisis, and vowed last week to “help to stabilize countries where the refugees are coming from”.

Britain has accepted 216 Syrian refugees over the past year and granted asylum to almost 5,000 Syrians since the conflict broke out in 2011 – far fewer than other European countries like France, Germany and Sweden.

More than four million Syrians have fled abroad.