New wave of refugees possible due to cuts in UN aid

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http://www.dw.com/en/new-wave-of-refugees-possible-due-to-cuts-in-un-aid/a-18710185

International aid to Syrian refugees is drying up. The emergency could mean that soon more and more longterm refugees living in Arab transit countries will come to Europe.

New wave of refugees possible due to cuts in UN aid
12.09.2015
Juliane Metzker

The Syrians living in the city of Bar Elias in northwestern Lebanon are having a hard time breathing. For days now, a sandstorm has covered their tents with a heavy layer of fine dust. Nonetheless, a group of men sit together on a terrace in front of a little brick house. Their hands covering their mouths, they stare at a small television screen. Arab language news outlets are reporting that ever more Syrians are landing in Europe. Images of the arrival of thousands of refugees in Munich flash across the screen.

Fifty-year-old Mohammed is excited. He wants to leave too. He has been living here for three years. The encampment offers water and electricity, but no prospects. So, off to Europe? That would have been an option, but he has decided to go to Australia instead. Now he is waiting for an answer from the embassy. Next to him, sits Riad, who would just as soon head off to Europe tomorrow. If need be, illegally. While fleeing Syria, a sniper shot his wife in the neck. Now she is paralyzed from the neck down: "We can't stay here. We don't have any money for medicine. My wife and children deserve a better life. As soon as I have some money I am going to hire a trafficker."

Exodus ahead?

Syrians living in Lebanese refugee camps are in a precarious situation. Since the start of the civil war five years ago, more than 1.5 million of them have fled to the small neighboring state. But that number only refers to those who have officially registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Inofficial numbers are said to be much higher. Half of the Syrians live in some 1,700 makeshift tent camps spread across Lebanon. Among them, smaller and larger encampments, but also abandoned building sites and garages. Few of them have sufficient water and electricity. Residents often have to trek several kilometers to the next village to get food and other necessities.

So far, the Lebanese government has resisted erecting centrally organized refugee camps. They are simply too scared that history will repeat itself: "The Lebanese government fears that Syrian refugees may never go back home, much like the Palestinians that fled to Lebanon 67 years ago. And, since most of the Syrians are Sunnis, it could upset the delicate balance of Christians, Sunnis and Shiites living in the country," says Maha Yahya, an expert on Lebanon from the Carnegie Middle East Center, a policy research institute.