Poorer Lebanese resent aid given to Syrian refugees and their willingness to work for less pay
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tension between Syrian refugees and their Lebanese hosts is rising, and falling wages, rising rents, a tight job market and growing crime are increasingly being blamed on the refugees, an advocacy group said on Thursday.
With no end in sight to the Syrian conflict, Refugees International (RI) called on the Lebanese government, donors and aid groups to step up efforts to make Syrian refugees self-sufficient and better integrated with their Lebanese hosts.
"Lebanon has shown incredible generosity toward Syrian refugees, but wariness and hostility are growing in certain quarters," said RI's Daryl Grisgraber, who met urban refugees in Lebanon last month.
On Aug. 29 the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said the number of Syrian refugees had topped three million. The vast majority of them are living in neighbouring countries, and the highest concentration is in Lebanon where 1.17 million refugees make up a quarter of the population.
Grisgraber said there was genuine sympathy in Lebanon for the refugees’ plight, but fear about their impact on the everyday life of ordinary Lebanese and the country's sectarian make-up - which mirrors Syria's Sunni-Shi’ite division - was growing.
Grisgraber's comments echoed concerns expressed in July by the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, who warned that the small coastal country was at risk of crumbling as a state under the burden of the refugees.
Ross Mountain also said some Lebanese had lost jobs to Syrians - scattered in 1,700 poor communities, mainly in northern Lebanon - who were willing to be paid less.
Grisgraber said in areas where both groups live together, poorer Lebanese communities were resentful of the help Syrians received because of their refugee status, yet many refugees still lacked the most basic aid such as food, shelter and medical care.
A joint UNHCR-UNHABITAT report has said housing is the most serious concern for most refugees, and that 41 percent of Syrians in Lebanon do not have affordable, adequate shelter.
A shortage of funding for various programmes meant hygiene kits were no longer available, educational programmes were being reduced or shut down and refugees previously eligible for food aid were receiving nothing, Grisgraber said.
Doctors told RI of a rise in communicable diseases due to overcrowding, and refugees repeatedly said they had considered going back to Syria just to get healthcare, she added.
The report noted that more Lebanese officials across the political spectrum were referring to Syrians as economic migrants and threatening to shut the border with Syria.
In addition, since Islamic State insurgents fought the Lebanese army in the border town of Arsal in early August, there has been heightened suspicion of the Syrians living in Lebanon and whether they compromise its security.
"This summer, Lebanon may well have reached a turning point at which security worries related to Syrians in the country trump humanitarian concerns," Grisgraber's report said.
(Editing by Tim Pearce; timothy.pearce@thomsonreuters.com)
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