UN official warns on Lebanon’s refugee ‘calamity’

15 Jul 14
A senior United Nations relief official has warned that Lebanon faces a ‘national calamity’ as the number of refugees in the country grows and called on international donors to fulfil their pledges of support.

By Judith Ugwumadu | 16 July 2014

A senior United Nations relief official has warned that Lebanon faces a ‘national calamity’ as the number of refugees in the country grows and called on international donors to fulfil their pledges of support.

Lebanon has the highest proportion of refugees of any country in the world, Ross Mountain, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon said this week, noting that citizens were fleeing from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Gaza.

In particular, Mountain said around 12,000 new Syrian refugees were entering Lebanon each week and the total number is expected to reach 1.5 million by the end of the year, equivalent to one-third of the country’s population.

‘Lebanon is facing increasing tension and is in danger of seeing it worsen,’ said Mountain.

‘When you have 50,000 or 100,000 refugees in the country, it is a refugee emergency. When you have a quarter of the population of the country now arising [and] one third estimated by the end of this year… it is a national calamity.’

Lebanon has no refugee camps and the majority of Syrian refugees are scattered among poor communities.

Mountain said this was ‘a formula for increasing tensions’, adding that competition for declining resources would likely cause friction and tension between citizens and refugees.

He said it was not helpful that only 29% of the UN’s $1.6bn humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees living in Lebanon was funded.

Political solidarity and ‘moral support’ has not been matched by much-needed financial support, he observed.

‘I am suggesting that the importance of investing in Lebanon’s stabilisation and resilience now can still avert Lebanon being added to those other countries in the region that are increasingly in the news,’ Mountain said.

‘Lebanon has gone through a civil war some 25 years ago. The region does not need another country in that circumstance.’

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