Refugees drown in debt as conflict drags on endlessly
FOOD AND ACCOMODATION IN LEBANON ARE MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE THAN IN SYRIA
When Fatima Mohammad crossed into Lebanon from Syria a year ago, she brought with her $ 1,500 ( Dh5,500) in cash — enough she thought to get her family of seven through a few weeks in Beirut.
She and her family rent a small apartment in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut where rents are much lower than the city. She earns $ 300 a month working at a youth centre. Her oldest son, who is 18, brings in extra cash when he can get work lifting concrete and cement, but they can barely cover half of their expenses. Her husband, whose old job at the Ministry of Electricity in Syria afforded the family a comfortable life in a Damascus suburb, has impaired sight and now is unable to work.
Now, they are $ 500 in debt, and that sum is growing quickly. It’s a plight that has become endemic for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according a report released this week by humanitarian agency Oxfam.
Food and shelter are so much more expensive here than in Syria that even formerly middle class families, with substantial savings, are running out of funds. Many less wealthy Syrians crossed with only a few hundred dollars, some with drying up,” says Gottschalk. Only 32 per cent of refugees polled have paid employment and in many cases that income only covers their rent, about half of their living costs. nothing. The average monthly shelter costs about $ 225, according to the report, and everything from clothing to transport is significantly costlier.
Long way home
“The amount of money they brought … really speaks to people’s perception of how long they thought they would stay,” says Noah Gottschalk, senior humanitarian policy expert with Oxfam. “It’s starting to sink in that there won’t be a quick solution to the conflict and they’re not able to go home.”
More than 75 per cent of the 260 Syrian refugee households surveyed by Oxfam carry debt.
For refugees like Mohammad, it is unclear how they will pay that money back.
“As the conflict continues these sources of income are