Syrian refugees in Lebanon: sometimes a losing battle to survive

(Vatican Radio) It’s becoming more and more difficult for Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring Lebanon to to eke out a living there, given the lack of food, resources and access to medical care. The smallest and most vulnerable among them such as young babies sometimes cannot survive in these very testing conditions. Najla Chahda is the director of Caritas Lebanon Migrant Centre and she spoke to Vatican Radio’s Susy Hodges about the tragic death of a baby boy this week belonging to a Syrian refugee family and talked about the overall humanitarian crisis facing the refugees.

Listen to the extended interview with Najla Chahda of Caritas Lebanon:

There are now well over a million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and according to Chahda the humanitarian situation facing them is “more and more difficult." She says very often there are over 4 refugee families having to live in “one very small, overcrowded room” in "very unhygienic conditions." With little or no resources, for many of these Syrian refugees it is a real struggle to get by each day, particularly because of a lack of access to medical treatment.

As a case in point, Chahda spoke of her distress over the death earlier this week of “an 8 month old baby boy” belonging to a Syrian refugee family. The baby was listless and without appetite and his mother had brought him to one of Caritas’ mobile clinics in Lebanon but he died in his mother’s arms, just five minutes after their arrival at the centre. The family came to Caritas after one local hospital had earlier refused to admit the baby because of money issues.

Chahda says Lebanon is buckling under the strain of trying to cope with the continuing daily influx of refugees from Syria and says “we all need to join our efforts to halt the (Syrian) war.”