The Kurdish-led administration expresses readiness to host Syrians refugees from Lebanon

Shafaq News/ The Kurdish-led administration in Syria's northeast expressed its readiness to receive Syrian refugees from the Miniyeh camp in Lebanon after hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled their makeshift camp in north Lebanon when their tents were set alight when fighting broke out between local youths and camp residents.

The co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration, Yerevan Khaled, said in a press statement, the Syrian government and the opposition are responsible for what is happening to the Syrians inside and outside the country.

Khaled called on the countries which support the Syrian refugees to fulfill their humanitarian obligations towards those fleeing the war, explaining that the time has come “to lay down the guns and turn to the dialogue between the patriotic Syrians.”

At least three people were wounded in the clash on Saturday in the Miniyeh region near the coastal city of Tripoli, Lebanon after which youths set fire to the camp, Lebanon’s state-owned National News Agency said.

Tensions between refugees and residents have risen in Lebanon in recent years. Humanitarian workers and politicians say they have been fuelled by racism and the anger of people who blame refugees for taking their jobs during a financial crisis.

Lebanon has received more than a million Syrian refugees since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011. They have become a significant source of cheap labour for Lebanon’s construction and agriculture sectors.

Damascus urged Lebanon’s judicial authorities and security forces to “shoulder their responsibility” to ensure that its nationals were protected. “Syria regrets the fire … that terrified its inhabitants and deprived them of a shelter,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement on state media.

Khaled Kabarra, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said the nearly 400 residents who fled the camp went to other enclosed encampments or found temporary shelter in vacant schools and hotels.

Nearly a decade since Syria’s war began, neighboring Lebanon still hosts some 1 million registered Syrian refugees for whom life has only become more difficult since an economic crisis erupted last year.

Poverty among Syrian refugees in Lebanon is soaring, reflecting deepening hardship among the entire population.

The proportion of refugees below the extreme poverty line of less than $3 a day climbed to 88% this year from 55% last year, UNHCR said.

The situation was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily labour upon which many refugees depended has dried up.

The situation facing refugees in Lebanon has been deteriorating steadily since 2013-14 as Lebanon’s troubles began to hit them and any savings they brought with them were used up, UNHCR representative in Lebanon Mireille Girard said to Reuters.

But now, almost all refugees are below the survival line, she said. “This is dramatic, this is very serious.”

“People have the impression that the future is closing down on them and don’t see light at end of tunnel,” Girard said.

“The situation is very serious and at this moment we really need everyone to mobilise ... toward supporting the most vulnerable as much as possible.”