For Caritas Lebanon, the tragedy of Syrian refugees is "worsening day by day"
Beirut (AsiaNews) - "The humanitarian situation in Lebanon is disheartening," a local Caritas official told AsiaNews, who agrees with the United Nations' view that the emergency in Syria is the worst since the Rwanda. For the source, matters are "worsening day by day. We need peace."
More than two years after the start of the civil war, the Syrian conflict has left more than 100,000 people dead, with 5,000 more lives claimed each month. Meanwhile, millions of refugees have flocked to camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Issam Bishara, the regional director for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), said, "Unlike Turkey and Jordan, the Lebanese government has chosen not to set up official refugee camps along the Syrian border. Instead, what exists are makeshift camps established by the Syrian refugees themselves with help from local parties or Arab donors."
A month ago, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres released a report saying that refugees in Lebanon represented one quarter of the country's population.
Officially, the number of refugees stands at 604,000, but Lebanon's Interior minister said that the actual figure is in excess of a million. Only last week, at least 17,000 Syrians crossed into the country.
"The camps' lack of official status makes it harder for humanitarian organisations to intervene," Caritas Lebanon officials told AsiaNews. "Even attempts made by the Minister of Health are not very effective." In the meantime, the first outbreaks of disease are being reported.
In addition, in a country like Lebanon, whose internal balance has always been affected by events in Syria, the humanitarian emergency comes at a time of growing political instability.
The decision by Hizbollah (Lebanon's 'Party of God') to intervene in the Syrian conflict on the side of Assad has changed the situation in favour of the regime, but in so doing it has rekindled violent sectarian strife between Shias and Sunnis in the border region.
"The fate of refugees in Lebanon and displaced people in Syria is being aggravated by a growing confessional divide, even fighting between rebel factions," the Caritas Lebanon source said. "This is why the situation continues to deteriorate."
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