By
Antoine Amrieh
BEIRUT/TRIPOLI:
The number of registered Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon has nearly reached
the highs of April, which saw an influx of some 5,000 displaced cross the
border. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday that there are now
4,510 Syrians registered with the agency and with Lebanon’s Higher Relief
Committee in the north of the country, up 238 from last week.
“Only
a few of this additional number represent newly arrived persons,” the report
added. “The vast majority are those who had crossed into Lebanon earlier but
only recently approached our office.”
The
U.N. says over 5,000 people have now been killed in Syria’s ongoing unrest.
Many
refugees fleeing to Lebanon have been pursued by Syrian army personnel, and
arrive wounded. The UNHCR said “an additional 19 wounded persons were referred
to hospitals in the north this week including an 11-year-old girl. Several were
in a coma when they reached the hospitals and one person reportedly died from
injuries.”
According
to UNHCR estimates, “over 100 wounded Syrians have been treated in various
hospitals in Lebanon since the beginning of the influx.”
The
report says that registration permits that the Lebanese government agreed to
issue to the refugees have been delayed.
“The
certificates are a means to show that the person is someone who is registered
with UNHCR and the HRC and is aimed to prevent fraud and facilitate access to
needed services,” the UNHCR said.
“Opposition
was expressed this week in some quarters, as it was believed that the
registration certificates conveyed rights to residency – which they do not,” it
added.
In
Tripoli Friday, Syrian refugees who were injured by gunfire while protesting
against Assad’s government participated in the weekly demonstration staged in
support of the uprising.
Several
hundred residents of the neighborhood of Qibbeh took to the street following
noon prayers and were led by a number of refugees, including young people and
children, who were injured by gunfire by regime forces while protesting in
Syria and later treated in hospitals in north Lebanon.
Delivering
Friday’s sermon at Hamza Mosque, Sheikh Zakaria Masri condemned the Syrian
regime’s brutality against its people, calling it worse than Israel’s treatment
of Palestinians.
Masri
said that like the Syrian regime, which is misleading the world by saying armed
gangs are targeting the Syrian people, Hezbollah also misled the Lebanese when
it claimed that the resistance liberated south Lebanon in 2000, when in fact,
according to Masri, it came about thanks to a secret agreement between Iran and
the U.S.
The
Italian Embassy in Beirut announced Friday that Italy had sent 17 tons of
humanitarian aid, worth $200,000, to assist the refugees.
The
items include medical kits, power generators, blankets and water.
The
cargo plane carrying the aid is being sent by the Italian Development
Cooperation, following an appeal by the opposition Syrian National Council
President Burhan Ghalioun.
The goods arrived at
Beirut’s airport, where Italian Foreign Ministry officials handed them over to
the UNHCR and the Lebanese government.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-17/157156-nearly-5000-syrian-refugees-in-north-lebanon.ashx#axzz1gtLKaQwu
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