The prime minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron expressed her shock and dismay at the stories Syrian refugees told her while she visited them in Lebanon.
Samantha Cameron visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon yesterday, and spoke of her horror at their experiences. The prime minister’s wife visited the region with Save the Children, the charity for which she is an ambassador.
Save the Children is working with local health clinics in the Bekaa Valley helping new mothers and pregnant women who were forced to flee their homes in Syria.
These children have seen the most horrific things: violence, bombs, constant attacks – Nick Martlew, Save the Children
Over one million refugees have now fled Syria, most of whom are women and children. Mrs Cameron expressed her shock and sorrow at the “childhoods smashed to pieces” by the war.
Among the refugees Mrs. Cameron met was a 10-year-old girl who had witnessed her mother’s death when their home was shelled, and a mother whose three-year-old son had been shot by a sniper at a check-point.
Estimates suggest that between 300,000 and 400,000 Syrian refugees are now in Lebanon. Establishing a definite figure is challenging, because many remain unregistered, but recent reports suggest that 8,000 Syrians cross the border into Lebanon every day. The city of Homs is only 25 miles from the Lebanese border.
Nick Martlew, Senior Conflict and Humanitarian Advocacy Adviser at Save the Children, told Channel 4 News about the plight facing refugees fleeing the fighting:
“More than half of the people fleeing Syria are children.
“Apart from having to leave their homes, these children have seen the most horrific things: violence, bombs, constant attacks – and in addition, they’ve been displaced several times before they leave the country.
“So they’re already traumatised by the time they reach the host country. They’ve lost their homes and possessions; they need basic essentials like shelter, and sometimes, particularly in Lebanon, they’re having to pay for it. This puts families in debt, which can lead to exploitation.”
The UN High Commission for Refugees says that almost a fifth of the Syrian population have been forced to leave their homes. 3.6 million people have been internally displaced inside the country while another 1.2 million have fled across the borders.
Lebanon has a population of 4 million and a deeply divided attitude to the Syrian war. Faced with an unending stream of refugees fleeing Syria, Lebanon is beginning to feel the strain.
At first, many Syrians were sheltered by Lebanese families and integrated, to a greater or lesser extent, in (most often Sunni) Lebanese communities. But as more and more Syrians cross the border, housing them is becoming untenable. Increasingly, Syrians are forced to stay in municipal buildings such as prisons, or even in tents.
Lebanon’s attitude to refugees is complex, and overlaid by memories of the influx of Palestinians into Lebanon after the creation of Israel. The country’s interior minister has even claimed that the refugees pose a threat to Lebanon’s security, alleging that many refugees are in fact rebel fighters.
Since the start of the conflict two years ago, at least 70,000 people have died – half of them civilians.
Last week the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) launched an appeal to help the millions of people who have fled the fighting and in desperate need of help.
However Andrej Mahecic of the UNHCR told Channel 4 News that they have only received less than third of the minimum donation levels they need to tackle the crisis.
He said:
“There is a gap of US$700 million the funding of the humanitarian response for Syrian refugees.
“Humanitarian organizations had received only 30 per cent of funds required to cover the basic needs of more than 1.1 million refugees.”