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Syria crisis - Beyond the Borders

Perspectives #1 - Lebanon - Waleed's Story

Por United Nations Development Programme

08 de March de 2014

nearly a million syrian refugees are now in Lebanon

Waleed Taha stands on the balcony of his house and surveys the sprawl of tents and temporary shelters stretching away to the horizon. This is the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon. The informal tent settlement, made up of refugees fleeing the ongoing war in Syria, stops just a few feet outside Waleed's front door.

“We know it’s hard for the Syrians because they have lost their houses and families, but it’s also hard for us. We need help as well and we need support.”

The war in syria has given rise to the greatest movement of refugees since world war II

When the conflict began in 2011, Waleed was studying engineering in Libya. He returned home to complete his studies just a few days before Syrian refugees, displaced by violence in their own country, began pouring across the border into Lebanon.

The exodus shows no sign of slowing. By the end of the year, it is estimated as much as 25 percent of the population in Lebanon will be refugees.

more than 120,000 syrian refugees enter lebanon and other neighbouring countries each month

Beneath Waleed’s Balcony, children play in the settlement. The huge influx of people has placed severe strain on infrastructure and basic services here in the Bekaa Valley and elsewhere.