Chilling prospects for Syrian refugees as new storm and snow to batter Lebanese camps
Syrian refugees are bracing themselves for the worst as this winter’s second storm reaches its peak in Lebanon this week.
Storm Miriam is expected to bring freezing winds and snow, a week after Storm Norma swept through camps holding more than 20,000 Syrian refugees across the country, flooding their tents and sweeping away belongings.
Children walk in sandals in the mud, ill-equipped for the icy weather coming from the mountains of the Bekaa Valley. Lucky ones wear wellingtons.
“It’s really bad”, says Hiba Fares, the UN High Commission for Refugees’ officer for the Bekaa region. “The flooding is much worse than previous years.”
Fleeting smiles light faces as people collect mattresses and blankets from a UN team, but the frustration is growing. Work is on hold, food is scarce and the cold is settling in.
“My family can only spend 2,000 Lebanese pounds (Dh4.86) a day on heating oil,” says Abir, 10. “That lasts from early morning until 2pm.”
Some camps have not yet received any assistance. Their inhabitants shuffle over to watch the aid distribution with envy. Voices rise as people flock to UN employees, airing their grievances.
“Our situation is just as bad,” says a woman in a makeshift camp close to the Syrian border, north of the Lebanese town of Anjar. “Why don’t we get any help?”
The UN agency says that the most extreme cases are being given priority.
One man points out it would be faster and more efficient if they all received cash to buy whatever they need.
Like many others, he regrets having been cut off from the UN agency’s monthly cash assistance of $175 a month for every family.
“It gave them the choice of what to spend money on – vinyl sheets, medicine or visiting a doctor,” Ms Fares says.
“Refugees are becoming increasing vulnerable and with limited resources we have to prioritise cash assistance to the poorest of the poor.”
The 2018 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees, jointly released by the UN agency, World Food Programme and UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, states that 34 per cent of refugees in Lebanon live in shelters that do not meet humanitarian standards, an increase from 28 per cent in 2017.
More than three quarters live below the poverty line.
More than a million Syrian refugees registered with the UN agency in Lebanon are also bearing the brunt of donor fatigue. By the end of last year, the UN’s Lebanon funding requirements of $463 million were only 68 per cent fulfilled.
“We need wood and tarpaulin to protect us from the next storm, clothes and shoes for the children, but there’s nothing,” says Ahmad, a refugee from Aleppo, as he shows the
More than three quarters of the refugees in Lebanon live below the poverty line
damages caused by flooding in his camp, including an overflowing septic tank.
He says a new tarpaulin costs more than $100, a considerable amount for him.
The UAE has announced emergency aid worth $5m (Dh18.3m) for displaced Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
The refugee agency, almost 900 Syrian refugees had to relocate because of bad weather in the Bekaa.
Some such as Ramia, 25, a single mother of two from Homs, have been taken in by their neighbours.
“We are more than 30 people living in one tent,” Ramia says.
She lost contact with her husband after he deserted from the Syrian army seven years ago.
The murky brown waters still stand nearly a metre high in her tent, more than a week after the first storm. Pumping the water out is pointless because the ground level is lower than the overflowing Litani River.
“I think I’ll have to wait at least a month until it dries up and I can go home,” Ramia says.
The abandoned tents are each securely closed with a padlock.
Children in the camp say that after people left, thieves stole what the water had not carried away or destroyed.