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PARIS: Lebanese President Michel Aoun said he wanted some 1.5 million Syrian refugees living in his country to henceforth start returning to their homes, voluntarily or not.

Aoun, in a state visit to France, said UN assistance given to aid Syrian refugees in “camps of misery” in Lebanon would be better used to return them to their country “from now on.”

“We don’t want to wait for their voluntary return,” Aoun insisted, speaking at the Elysee Palace alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

Aoun said that most of the Syrian regions from which the refugees hail are “now secure.”

Macron distanced himself from his counterpart’s viewpoint, saying that the absence of a political solution in Syria prevents refugees from returning back home permanently.

In a separate development, hundreds of Lebanese civil servants protested in front of the government’s capital building Tuesday, on the second day of strikes demanding pay in line with a stalled wage hike.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet, which approved the wage hike earlier this summer, put off any decrees until Thursday, when it will reconvene with Aoun to discuss the matter.

The Union Coordination Committee vowed to extend its strike through Thursday after forcing government offices and many schools to stay closed through the start of the week.

“We can’t make a dignified living on our salaries,” said Hoda Ghazi, a teacher at the protest outside the government’s Grand Serail building. “We’re not able to raise this generation properly.”