Lebanon currently hosts 1,169,000 refugees, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR. The implications of this figure on host communities are becoming evident every day, with both positive and negative aspects. International organizations were forced to change their programs to address the large number of refugees, in an attempt to reduce the emerging tensions with host communities.
It is difficult for any country to suddenly absorb more than one million people in three years. Such an influx should have entailed well-planned strategies and comprehensive management by the state to be able to control the situation. However, planning and organization have been completely absent from the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. This was due to mismanagement, which naturally led to tremendous pressure on social services and the infrastructure in host communities and sometimes created violent competition over resources and services.
Recently, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, Ross Mountain, explained that the majority of Lebanon’s Syrian refugees are living in towns and villages that have the highest rate of Lebanese citizens living in poverty. This warning becomes clear when noting that areas in Bekaa are on top of the list of host communities. The region absorbed more than 402,000 refugees since the onset of the crisis. The North, another poor region, came in second place, with more than 287,000 Syrian refugees.
Even in the capital Beirut, most refugees went to the lower-income suburbs. The class distribution was spontaneous as the poor went to the remote and marginalized regions and the rich took up residence in the center of the city. "In any refugee situation, people go to areas where they are more comfortable and that meet their needs with the least possible cost," said the UNHCR media spokesperson Dana Sleiman.
"A very large proportion of refugees lost their jobs and spent all their savings so they’re in a bad economic state. For this reason, it is natural for them to seek the poorest areas, since they are more affordable in terms of food, goods, and ability to find a residence," she added.
Class-based distribution, however, could lead to a dangerous impact on areas suffering from historical shortages in health, educational, infrastructure, and resources. These shortages will multiply as the pressure piles up on host communities, which will begin to witness brutal competition over resources among the poor.
According to Sleiman, the number of refugees increased "tremendously" since the beginning of the crisis and today. "We had around 75,000 refugees in 2012," she said. "In 2013, they became half a million and surpassed one million in 2014."
Due to such increases, their needs became different to a large extent. The UNHCR and relief organizations could not merely continue to provide the basic needs of refugees. The provision of services and aid to host communities became urgent, in order to relieve the tensions resulting from overcrowding and competition over resources.
In coordination with 60 organizations around the country, the UNHCR will try to address such tensions by supporting the infrastructure of host communities, including the improvement of health services, renovation of schools, improvement of the sanitation network, and so on. It is hoped this will develop host communities, on one hand, and absorb the tensions caused by projects limited to refugee populations.
Sleiman believes the Lebanese welcomed the refugees, however, "racism appeared in some areas. But it was a natural outcome of the state of tension in these communities."
Large amounts of money have been poured into Lebanon since the beginning of the Syrian refugee crisis. By the end of 2013, it received “$900 million of the $1.89 million requested by the unified appeal launched by the UNHCR in coordination with [international] organizations and the Lebanese government." An addition $526 million in aid was received since the beginning of this year, in response to the latest appeal issued at the beginning of the year.
The recent appeal covered three segments of the population: Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees from Syria, and 1.5 million Lebanese citizens in host communities affected by the Syrian crisis. According to Sleiman, the amount received is an adequate response to humanitarian needs. However, it does not keep up with the pace of the increasing numbers of refugees and their needs, in addition to those of host communities. "[The UNHCR] is currently implementing expensive projects related to hospital and infrastructure rehabilitation, which require a lot of money," she explained.
The positive economic impact of this crisis is tangible and real, despite the generalized stereotypes promoted by international organizations, which maintained that focusing on the negative impact in front of donors is related to getting as much money to support Lebanon.
In its periodic report issued in July 2014, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it had pumped a total of $222 million into the Lebanese economy by the end of May of this year. The coupons, which are all redeemed in the local market, benefited 744,000 refugees.
Also according to Sleiman, all international organizations purchase their supplies from Lebanon, which is a rule they adopted to support and maintain the economy of the host country. The amount spent on tents, equipment, and maintenance alone in the local market was almost $50 million. Sleiman added that another $30 million are spent every month on rentals, since 81 percent of refugees are actually renting their apartments.
This positive impact of refugees is seldom highlighted and many people prefer to focus on the competition in the job market between Lebanese citizens and refugees. However, recent figures by the UNHCR indicated that 53.2 percent of refugees are under 18 and 52.3 percent are female, which meant that women and children make up 78 percent of the refugees population. This segment cannot represent competition in the job market. As for the remaining percentage, it contains a major share of Syrians who worked in Lebanon since before the crisis.
Sleiman maintained that most Syrians registered at the UNHCR face great difficulties in finding work and are mostly seeking daily jobs, such as construction and cleaning, tasks that Lebanese rarely undertake themselves.
Ever more serious issues are currently appearing, however. According to Sleiman, a whole generation of Syrians could become illiterate, as only 90,000 students have been registered in schools out of the 400,000 refugees of schooling age. This will lead to a future crisis, with the presence of a large illiterate community, and the social and economic problems it implies.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
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