Lebanon takes measures to ease refugee influx

“We have enough. There’s no capacity anymore to host more displaced. NOHAD MACHNOUK LEBANON’S INTERIOR MINISTER

MASHAA, Lebanon — Lebanon imposed new restrictions on its borders Monday to limit the flood of refugees pouring in from war-torn Syria.

For the first time since the two countries’ borders were carved out after the First World War, Syrians will now need a visa to enter Lebanon.

Those already in the country will also find it more difficult to gain employment, as the government tries to enforce complicated and expensive legal procedures to obtain work permits. The measure is the response of a country that says it is no longer able to cope with hosting what is now the highest per capita number of refugees anywhere in the world, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

More than 1.5 million refugees have taken shelter in a country with a population of 4 ½ million since the beginning of the Syrian conflict.

The unprecedented influx has overwhelmed Lebanon’s water and electricity supplies, increased rents and depressed the economy, pushing host communities to breaking point.

“We have enough. There’s no capacity anymore to host more displaced,” said Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk.

When the war in neighbouring Syria began, Lebanese citizens mostly welcomed refugees. Some rented them land on which they could build shelters, others opened their houses to them for free.

But as the crisis reaches its fifth year, with no end to the war in sight, that hospitality is souring into resentment.

More than 45 towns and villages have imposed curfews, enforced by local, often violent vigilantes, banning Syrian refugees from moving after dark.

The number of attacks recorded on the informal settlements is increasing. In part, the aggression against the mostly Sunni Muslim refugees is sectarian: a reopening of wounds latent in Lebanese society from its own 20-year civil war. But it is also a response to an increasing economic crisis.

Before the regulations, Syrians were automatically given a residency permit on arrival that lasted up to six months — a law that became a lifeline for civilians fleeing a war that has already claimed upwards of 200,000 lives.