Feature: Refugees in Lebanon snared in poverty

Statistics by international bodies ranked Lebanon in first place worldwide regarding the ratio of refugees compared with its inhabitants.

Lebanon hosts over 1.5 million Syrian refugees, 550,000 Palestinian refugees, 20,000 Iraqi and Sudanese refugees, whereas its total population does not exceed four million.

Since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar El-Assad's regime in March 2011, thousands of refugees fled their war-torn countries and settled in various parts of Lebanon, and the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) provides them with the necessary aid.

However, Lebanon's Social Affairs Ministry released figures showing the international aid provided to Syrian refugees does not cover more than 20 percent of their estimated needs, calculated by the UNHCR to be close to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's resources are being depleted particularly in the services sector, as well as education and health and environment fields.

On the World Refugee Day, which falls on June 20 every year, Imad Abou-Ali, coordinator of international aid organizations and Syrian refugees in the Saghbine camp in West Bekaa, criticized the aid rationing to the refugees as 70 percent live below the poverty line, with a daily three dollar wage.

He told Xinhua that the children's rights bill is being violated on a daily basis, as Syrian families send their children to work in private businesses for a daily wage ranging between three to five dollars.

Meanwhile, the Syrian refugees' harsh living conditions in Lebanon, in addition to lacking work opportunities, forced many female refugees to prostitute themselves in order to secure their daily needs.

For example, 35-year-old Syrian refugee S.CH told Xinhua that she lost her husband in the war and found herself obliged to be a prostitute at a night club to feed her four children.

"One night, the Lebanese security services arrested me along with 12 other Syrian females for prostitution," she said, adding that "after I was released from jail, I prostituted myself again, and most prostitution rings hire Syrian females."

As for refugee Leila al-Hamad, she called on donor countries on the World Refugee Day to seriously deal with the Syrian crisis and work effectively towards ending the war in their country.

In north Lebanon, the regular protests were organized on the World Refugee Day to draw the world's attention to the Palestinians' ordeal in the refugee camps of Nahr el-Bared and al-Biddawi.

Around 70,000 Palestinians live in the two refugee camps and they face harsh conditions aggravated by the aid cut provided by the UNRWA.

In addition, armed battles which erupted in 2007 between the Lebanese army and the extremist "Fath el-Islam" militants resulted in the destruction of the Nahr el-Bared camp and the displacement of around 40,000 refugees.

Most of Nahr el-Bared camp inhabitants were moved to the al-Biddawi camp and other Lebanese villages in the north, as the rehabilitation and reconstruction project funded by the international community has yet to be completed.

Subsequently, several Palestinian refugees sought migration to Europe in the past two years.

However, most attempts ended miserably with the sinking of illegal boats which were illegally transporting refugees from north Lebanon to Turkey or Greece.

In al-Beddawi camp, 67-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Awad told Xinhua that he has been calling for decades on the international community to apply with the United Nations resolutions related to the Palestinian cause.

"But it seems our cause has been forgotten and our suffering has become merely headline text for the world's media," he said. Endit