LEBANON: UNHCR'S Antonio Guterres visits refugees in registration centre in Tyre, and in a poor neighbourhood in Sidon, and appeals for more aid from international community

Record ID: 274397

  • Title: LEBANON: UNHCR'S Antonio Guterres visits refugees in registration centre in Tyre, and in a poor neighbourhood in Sidon, and appeals for more aid from international community
  • Date: 19th June 2013
  • Summary: TYRE, LEBANON (JUNE 18, 2013) (REUTERS) UNHCR REGISTRATION CENTRE 'OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR)' SIGN IN ARABIC CLOSE OF UNHCR FLAG WIDE OF REFUGEES WAITING IN UNHCR REGISTRATION CENTRE EXTERIOR HALL VARIOUS OF REFUGEES WAITING UNHCR HIGH COMMISSIONER ANTONIO GUTERRES SIGN READING 'UNHCR' MORE OF GUTERRES WALKING AND GREETING PEOPLE
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4A76J70WQK8RS279AG2M0L4N0
  • Story Text: The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday (June 18) that massive support was needed to help countries cope with the number of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their country.
    Guterres is on a one-day visit to Lebanon where he met government leaders and visited refugees in southern Lebanon.
    The Syrian revolt turned into a civil war after a crackdown on anti-Assad protesters. It has taken on a sectarian hue, with Shi'ite Iran and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah militants backing Assad, while Sunni powers such as Saudi Arabia support the rebels. The conflict has sharpened sectarian rifts in Lebanon.
    The United Nations says 93,000 people have been killed in Syria and 1.6 million Syrians have fled abroad. Lebanon, the smallest of Syria's neighbours with 4 million people, has taken in more than half a million Syrian refugees.
    The United Nations has asked for some 5 billion USD in humanitarian aid for Syrians and for Syria's neighbours before the end of the year, its biggest emergency appeal to date. Of that, 1.7 billion USD will be required for aid work in Lebanon, including 450 million USD for the Beirut government, the U.N. says.
    Diplomats say that foreign donors are unwilling to give money to Lebanon's sectarian-based government which they see as deeply divided over Syria's war and dysfunctional on domestic issues.
    During a visit to a UNHCR registration centre in the southern city of Tyre -- where employees say Syrians start queuing at 3:30 a.m. every morning due to the huge influx -- municipality workers told Guterres about issues they had to deal with while new refugees were arriving and complained over the lack of support from Beirut.

    "I think we have an enormous gap in shelter, in water, in sanitation and in health, in education for the children and we would like to be able to provide to the Syrian refugees the same kind of dignifying conditions that they had in their country, but unfortunately we are very far from being able to do so, and we need much more resources, together with our partners, together with the Lebanese municipalities, and the national authorities to be able to correspond to what has always been the generosity of the Syrian people when they hosted half a million Palestinian refugees, more than one million Iraqi refugees, also sharing whatever they had with them. These generous Syrian people are in need of international solidarity," Guterres told reporters in Sidon.
    Highlighting the difficulty of tackling the refugee crisis in Lebanon, Guterres's trip in Sidon was cut short after clashes erupted between rival gunmen.
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