By Emma Gatten
BEIRUT: Additional shelter is
urgently being sought for Syrian refugees in the Bekaa and north Lebanon
currently staying in schools, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said
Friday as it announced numbers of registered refugees were up to 37,240.
This figure includes 834 registered
after the first week of a centralized registration process in Tripoli. The body
also reported that almost 9,500 had been in touch to register.
Local charities estimate the real
numbers to be closer to 90,000, and the UNHCR has stressed its figure cannot
reflect the large numbers who have been unable or unwilling to register.
The UNHCR said the rise in the
number of refugees sheltering in schools was posing a problem as the time
neared for the start of the school year in September, when they would be forced
to relocate, and that it, along with its partners, were actively seeking
alternatives, including abandoned buildings.
While many displaced Syrians have
found shelter with host families, as the numbers have grown substantially in
recent weeks they have been forced to find alternative shelter. The UNHCR
reported Friday that several Lebanese border villages in the north were
reaching maximum capacity amid security concerns due to frequent shelling from
Syria.
In a report released by Medicins
Sans Frontieres Friday, the body estimated that more than a thousand people are
living in overcrowded conditions in Wadi Khaled and the Bekaa Valley, while in
Tripoli they face high rents. Many families stay in storage units rented out by
local residents for around $100 to $150 a month.
The MSF report, based on a survey of
889 Syrian refugee families in the north, Bekaa and Tripoli, also highlighted
the dearth of consistent medical care provided to the refugees, particularly in
providing treatment for chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases.
MSF holds around 500 medical
consultations a week, around 25 percent of which are with patients requiring
treatment for chronic medical care, with 19 percent of them not receiving the
treatment they need. The majority of refugees, MSF said, cannot afford the
health care they require, while four out of 10 said they could not access a
hospital, either because of the expense or because of security concerns.
Fabio Forgione, the head of the MSF
Lebanon mission, said the decision by Lebanon’s Higher Relief Council in June
to cease funding secondary health care, citing fiscal constraints, had put a
strain on those few charitable organizations that are providing health care.
Although the HRC was granted a $1
billion emergency loan by the government earlier this month, Forgione said it
was “no longer providing health care as it was before.”
He added that improving access to
health care was not simply a case of more money, but also of better
organization. “There are more than seven organizations operating in the field,
meaning there is quite a lot of duplication while certain areas are lacking.
“One of the main obstacles is that
there is still not a reliable registration process in place,” for the refugees,
making it difficult to identify needs,” Forgione added.
U.N. humanitarian chief Baroness
Valerie Amos Thursday announced the organization would increase its financial
support to the government to fund provisions for Syrian refugees.
Forgione said the problem was one that required
long-term solutions. “We believe it will be a long time before these refugees
are able to go back to Syria, so it is important that the support from the
international community is there not just now but in the long term.”http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Aug-18/184998-additional-shelter-needed-for-syrian-refugees-in-lebanon-unhcr.ashx#axzz245GhTCxA
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