Caritas says Syrian refugees in Lebanon face death from cold and disease
(Vatican Radio) A fierce winter snowstorm has heightened the misery and appalling
living conditions facing most of the more than one million Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
The President of Caritas Lebanon, Father Simon Faddoul says it’s certain that
many Syrian refugees will die from cold and disease this coming winter and all of
them are suffering right now. He spoke to Susy Hodges about their desperate plight.
Listen
to the full interview with Father Faddoul:
After the
UN, Caritas Lebanon is the main non-governmental provider of aid to the estimated
1.1 million Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon to escape the civil war in their
homeland. Father Faddoul describes it as “a very gloomy situation” for many of these
refugees, saying they live “in horrible conditions.”
Although the Syrian refugees
face a variety of living conditions in Lebanon, ranging from rented apartments, to
tents, to uninhabited buildings or shacks. Father Faddoul says large numbers of
them are living in makeshift shacks or even more unsanitary conditions: “ I know
and visited a family of 10 who are living in a cowshed,” he says, amidst the dirt
and with no infrastructure whatsoever. But regardless of the quality of their shelter,
“they are all suffering… and it’s a very sad scene.”
Father Faddoul says the
arrival of the first winter weather has exacerbated those sufferings, especially for
the children and the elderly, because so many of the Syrian refugees lack proper
winter clothing and there is “a lack of oil and gas” for heating. He also points
out that there is a huge increase in deforestation levels in Lebanon because the refugees
are cutting down so many trees to burn the wood and keep warm during the bitter cold.
Asked whether the influx of refugees from Syria is still continuing, Father
Faddoul replies that every day between two and three thousand Syrians are crossing
over the border, putting a further strain on the already over-stretched resources
of Lebanon. And he concludes by warning that with the coming of the winter cold,
the refugees’ already “extremely difficult” living conditions are likely to worsen
and will definitely lead to loss of life. “Certainly many will die from cold and
disease.”