300,000 CHILDREN HAVE FLED LEBANON TO SYRIA

Thu 14 November 2024:

About 300,000 children have fled from Lebanon to Syria in the past seven weeks to seek safety from the worsening conflict, only to arrive in a country where humanitarian needs have never been higher, Save the Children warned today.

Many children are travelling alone, separated from parents or families, and are at risk of abuse, food shortages and illness as winter looms. An estimated 70 per cent of the people being displaced from Lebanon to Syria are Syrians, with the remainder Lebanese or of other nationalities. The UN estimates that approximately 60 per cent are children and adolescents with many arriving in desperate need of medical care, shelter, food and water.

At least 1.2 million people in Lebanon – a fifth of the total population – have been displaced since Israel launched its bombing campaign on southern Lebanon and Beirut, including many of the 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have been sheltering in Lebanon since conflict hit their country 13 years ago.

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Maysa, 28, a Syrian refugee who had been living in Lebanon with her husband and their two young children, was forced to flee violence once again and is now displaced in Syria. She said: “When the conflict broke out in Lebanon, it brought terror with it. We were terrified because of the sounds of bombardment and shelling, as we were living in a tent that any bullet could penetrate. We saw buildings being destroyed and heard the screams of people fleeing the bombing. We witnessed terrifying events and situations that we will never forget.”

The displaced children and their families are arriving in a country that is reeling from 13 years of conflict and subsequent humanitarian and economic crises, and last year’s devastating earthquake that affected 38 per cent of the population. About 16.7 million people are in need of assistance in Syria, which is more than 72 per cent of the population and the highest number since the beginning of the crisis in 2011. An estimated 45 per cent of those in need are children.

“It is freezing at night and there is nothing to keep my children warm. My son became sick from the cold, he got flu and inflammation all over his body. We have little food left. I am always worried about securing food and clothes for my children,” Maysa explained.

Director of Save the Children’s Syria Response, Rasha Muhrez, said: “Many of these children and families arriving in Syria from Lebanon made that same journey in the other direction several years ago, fleeing conflict and hoping for safety in Lebanon. They arrive in a Syria where humanitarian conditions have never been worse. The cost of food has nearly doubled since last year, and the minimum wage only covers 16 per cent of a basic food basket. At the same time, half a million children required life-saving treatment for acute malnutrition, which would have once been unthinkable in Syria.”

“We need to see an urgent injection of funds that prioritises the needs and recovery of children and youth who have been newly displaced as well as the communities that are hosting them.”

The names of the refugees have been changed to protect anonymity.

-MEMO

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