MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Russian diplomatic missions, including those to the United Nations and the European Union, have been making efforts to step up global efforts to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their places of permanent residence, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nikokai Burtsev said on Tuesday.

According to him, Russian diplomats are verifying the information about refugee numbers provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "The UNHCR said that the decreasing numbers of Syrians residing in the accountable states do not necessarily prove that they have returned to Syria as the monitoring of refugees stops when they leave for other regions of the world," Burtsev noted.

He went on to say that the focus was on the countries interested in the early return of Syrians temporarily residing on their territory to their home country.

"The Lebanese authorities say that in fact, the country is hosting 1.5 mln of Syrian refugees rather than 976,000, as 200,000 Syrians are residing their illegally. At the same time, only 30,000 Syrians who actively participated in military activities in Syria say they prefer to stay in Lebanon, while others are ready to return to Syria as the situation in their places of permanent residence returns to normal," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, adding that there were plans to discuss the establishment of a working group on resolving that issue with Lebanon.

In addition, Russian diplomats have informed the Greek Foreign Ministry about Moscow’s contribution to efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Syria, restore the country’s social and economic infrastructure facilities, implement economic projects and carry out humanitarian demining missions. "Officials at the Greek Foreign Ministry said determining time frames and ways to hold consultations on the matter required time and decisions agreed by various institutions. They vowed to immediately request the most recent information about the number of Syrian refugees residing in Greece and their places of residence in Syria from the immigration authorities. However, the Greeks find it difficult to assess the refugees’ readiness to return," Burtsev noted.

He also said that "the Swedish authorities are still determined to pursue a policy aimed at the gradual integration of refugees into the country’s society.".