Daily Star - Syrian refugees in Tripoli are slipping through the cracks, November 26th 2011

By Antoine Amrieh

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: While the issue of Syrian refugees fleeing unrest has focused on border areas such as Wadi Khaled in Akkar, hundreds of refugees living in Tripoli are also facing hardships, with dwindling funds, lack of schooling for children and little information from back home.

One refugee, who goes by the name of Umm Mohammad, fled the violence in the city of Homs with her husband and her four sons. They are now staying in a suburb of Tripoli.

“I haven’t been back to Homs in four months and I don’t know what’s happening in the city,” she says, adding that the situation for her family is very difficult.

“My husband is trying to work in the construction sector and my children are not in school as we are unable to register them. I don’t know what has happened to my home in Homs since we left the city. God alone knows how we will manage,” she adds.

According to unofficial estimates by local organizations that provide aid to refugees, over 400 Syrian families have fled to Tripoli and have settled randomly throughout the northern coastal city.

Some receive care from relatives or limited assistance from local charity organizations, but many of them lack support and are too scared to reveal themselves or their whereabouts, avoiding contact with their surroundings out of fear of persecution.

Umm Mahmoud, who fled Hama at the beginning of the unrest in Syria, arrived with her two sons and is staying at her cousin’s home.

“All that I know about my family in Syria is that there is an ongoing state of terror and a blockade of the city with daily raids on neighborhoods,” she says, adding “no one goes out to the streets at nights because of the curfew.”

Umm Mahmoud says that her sons, aged 15 and 17, found jobs and although their income is limited, it helps them survive. She also receives aid each month from a local organization. “I only wish I had a heater, because it’s so cold,” she says.

Faten, a mother of three, lives with her husband, mother and sister in a small rented apartment. She refuses to give the location and expresses her hope that the situation improves in Syria so she and her family can return.

“My cousins are Lebanese and they help us as much as they can, but my children are out of school and we have no heating,” Faten says. “But I thank the Lebanese people and the residents of Tripoli in particular for taking refugees in and offering them support.”

One refugee, requesting anonymity, said the Lebanese government should provide for the Syrian refugees’ humanitarian needs, “beginning by acknowledging the presence of Syrian refugees in Tripoli,” while another, who also declined to reveal his identity, said U.N officials had distributed aid once, for the Eid al-Adha holiday.