UN assisting 20000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon

The UN said Friday it was now assisting over 20,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, with under half that figure actually registered with the body’s refugee agency. In the latest weekly report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the agency says that 9666 Syrians are registered both with the body and Lebanon’s Higher Relief Committee, and all are within the north of Lebanon. Activists in Lebanon say the real total for the whole of the country is far higher than 20,000. Around 700 displaced people have also been registered in the Greater Beirut area, and approximately 3,000 in Tripoli are awaiting registration, Friday’s report says. In the Bekaa Valley there are roughly 7500 displaced Syrians. As the HRC is not present in the area, the report states, “registration will be through local municipalities.” In the area, seven outreach teams conducted over 280 house visits to verify new arrivals, the report states, and while the exercise is yet to be finalized, “reports indicate that there have been a number of new arrivals over the past two weeks.” In reference to the death Monday of Ali Shaaban, a Lebanese cameraman shot dead on the border with Syria in the Wadi Khaled region of Akkar, and with “gunfire reaching Lebanese villages” nearby, the report says that this has led to “increased security precautions in those areas.” Alongside the UN Department of Safety and Security and Lebanese authorities, the UNHCR is mapping “areas where our programs may need to be moved to afford better security.” The refugee body is also in discussions with displaced people and local community leaders “regarding possible relocation of displaced families from certain areas which have experienced crossfire to areas where such risks are reduced,” the report adds. In terms of shelter, although most refugees are living with host families, efforts are increasing to provide communal living quarters. The Norwegian Refugee Council has begun work to upgrade 18 collective shelters in the Bekaa village of Arsal, each with the capacity to house three to four families, the report states. For the first time, a collective shelter is being constructed in the city of Baalbek itself, with the Masjid Bukhari school being used to host four families, the report says, and a plan under way for improvements allowing it to host a further six. In terms of health care, the report states that “The provision of primary health care continues to be challenging as there is a shortage of chronic and acute medication, even for Lebanese nationals, in addition to a lack of available doctors.” On top of that, the report adds, there is “no health information system in place to keep track of patients’ records.”