Lebanon, a country of 4 million people, officially hosts 546,000 Syrians who have fled the conflict, most in the last five months. Tens of thousands registered with the United Nations in just the last two weeks. The Lebanese government estimates that there are an additional 500,000 who have not registered.
Lebanon is home to the most Syrian refugees, but other countries host staggering numbers: 478,000 in Jordan, 386,000 in Turkey, 158,000 in Iraq and 81,000 in Egypt, according to United Nations estimates. (Again, the true numbers may be higher.) Caved-in roofs, pockmarked walls and collapsed houses in villages along the Lebanese-Syrian border are testament to the war’s steady creep into Lebanon. So, too, are the funeral processions, the increasing numbers of wounded streaming into hospitals, and the road blockades, sniping and open gun battles that flare in Tripoli, Sidon and in parts of the Bekaa Valley.
The image of refugees is often of people living in crowded camps where life is grim. But in fact most of the world’s refugee population lives outside camps — in towns, villages and big cities. Here in Lebanon they are scattered across some 1,400 locations, in some of the most economically and socially depressed areas of the country.
They are putting enormous pressure on water, sanitation, education and health care systems. Wages are plummeting. Lebanese workers complain that they can no longer find jobs, which Syrians will do for much less. Poor Lebanese envy the international food, shelter and medical aid given to the refugees. Shopkeepers resent the competition brought by new Syrian-run establishments that they say are undercutting prices.
The anger could boil over. Already there have been curfews imposed, and sporadic attacks against refugees.
The Lebanese government is effectively paralyzed, with consensus on a new government formation stalled. Government ministries and humanitarian agencies are struggling to cope with the Syrians who now make up one-quarter of the population in Lebanon. And with less than 30 percent of needed funding secured, ever more serious human hardship and instability are on the horizon. Lebanon is bracing for more than one million additional Syrian refugees by year’s end.
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