BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Khaled Zahraman says he anticipates a renewed influx of Syrians into Lebanon and warns that the country may not have enough capacity to accommodate refugees.
“It is true that there are no implications yet from the recent events in Syria on Lebanon’s northern border, but we expect waves of refugees to flood into Lebanon at any moment,” Zahraman said in an interview published Tuesday by Al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
He said the refugee crisis has “exceeded the capabilities of the Lebanese at a time when there are no official statistics on migrants.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 1,600 civilians and 369 members of the Syrian Army and security forces have been killed since March 15 in Syria.
There are 2,300 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to an official with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. But most are unregistered because they entered the country illegally, and some unofficial estimates put the number much higher. Some refugees, afraid of repercussions by elements in Lebanon and the Syrian authorities, skip the registration process as they enter Lebanon.
Having fled to Lebanon with little more than the clothes on their backs, the Syrian refugees are living in shelters or with locals, where several families live in one room.
Food and hygiene products are provided, but many have no change of clothes, no hot water, and lack adequate medical care – some refugees are severely wounded and several are pregnant. Because most of the refugees entered Lebanon illegally, they don’t have freedom of movement, which further prevents them from seeking help.
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