ANSD : Lebanon seeks world’s help on refugee crisis

THU 25 - 4 - 2024

Date: Apr 25, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Lebanon seeks world’s help on refugee crisis

_{Joseph Haboush| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s delegation participated in a discussion with NGOs working to help Syrian refugees inside and outside the war-torn country at the Brussels II conference Tuesday, as it once again looked to the international community to help with the impact of the crisis. Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in the Belgian capital Tuesday evening ahead of the second day of the conference, titled, “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.”

Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh is part of the Lebanese delegation alongside Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani.

“A few years ago, education was the focus and this is important but now we’re also focused on health care,” Hasbani told The Daily Star after Tuesday’s sessions.

“This wasn’t given attention enough before. ... Primary health care [providers] and public hospitals need support and we’re trying to move away from early crisis to recovery for both Lebanon and Syria.”

Hasbani said that there was a need for more investment in facilities providing health care services as “they have been taking the burden of economic situation [in Lebanon] that has been stagnating and [suffering under the] significant increase in people they are providing treatment for.” He said there had been a conversation with NGOs about refugee returns but he hadn’t seen any “appetite to adopt a return strategy at this time. Speakers and NGOs are more focused on helping under the current situation.”

“In general, Lebanon received praise for its patience and dealing with the refugee crisis and we conveyed the message that it can’t last forever,” Hasbani said. “We are saying that there needs to be more support for host communities and at the same time we need to find a resolution for safe return while waiting for that point to be able to create the environment by which infrastructure and services are delivered,” he added, before saying that Hariri would be delivering Lebanon’s viewpoint at Wednesday’s session.

Hamadeh was quoted by the British Embassy in Lebanon as saying, “We want more than avoiding a #NoLostGeneration ... we want to create a new generation that will be the future for Syria.”

The Embassy tweeted a picture of U.K. Minister of State for the Middle East Alistair Burt with the two Lebanese ministers.

“[He] thanked Lebanon for [the] scale of generosity in hosting refugees. [The] U.K. supports Lebanese leadership on education quality reforms so every child fulfills their potential, multi-year funding to [Lebanon] long-term [for] quality reforms on teaching, learning/inclusion #Syriaconf2018,” the tweet read.

The U.N.’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura urged the world to prevent a fresh humanitarian disaster in the rebel-held region of Idlib, as officials warned that aid funding was running “desperately short.”

Mistura said Idlib risked suffering the same fate as Aleppo, which was seized in a Russian-backed Syrian offensive in 2016, and Eastern Ghouta, retaken by the regime shortly after an alleged chemical attack in early April.

“We were and are concerned on the humanitarian side by Idlib. Because Idlib is the big new challenge, 2.5 million people,” Mistura said at a news conference with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.

Mark Lowcock, head of U.N. aid agency UNOCHA, said the two-day gathering needed to raise $8 billion in pledges for work inside Syria and with refugees in neighboring countries, warning that some programs may have to be cut back if funds are not forthcoming.

“We are quite desperately short of resources,” he told reporters, saying UNOCHA managed to raise only half of the funds it needed in 2017 and urged Damascus and its main backer Russia to do more to help civilians suffering in the war.

Some 6.1 million people are now internally displaced in Syria, more than 5 million have fled and 13 million, including 6 million children, are in need of aid, according to the U.N. More than 700,000 people have been displaced since the start of this year alone.

A statement from the British Foreign Ministry said that U.K. International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt Wednesday would “call for all parties to the Syria conflict, including Russia, to protect civilians and put an end to the suffering in Syria.”

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