By Emily Jacquard
More than 200,000 killed. Nearly 4 million refugees. Four years since its onset, the Syrian Civil War has become one of the most destructive conflicts in the world, with a devastating effect on the entire Middle East.
Lebanon is bearing one of the heaviest burdens of the crisis, as civilians flow out of Syria and flee for safety. Since the start of the war, 1.5 million refugees have crossed the border that the two nations share. Before the conflict, the population of Lebanon was about 4.5 million; in just 4 years, it has ballooned and now roughly 25 percent of the overall population of the country is actually made up of displaced Syrians. The challenges posed by the huge population influx are many, and the obstacles for the Lebanese government and the international community can seem insurmountable. As the world watches the continuing crisis in horror, it must focus on the increasing, urgent needs in Lebanon as a key component of reducing suffering and increasing stability in the region.
Lebanon’s open border policy until the end of 2014 led refugees to flow into the country as soon as the Syrian war broke out. While the Lebanese initially welcomed the refugees with generosity, offering a home to those who had just lost theirs, the sheer number of displaced people is now threatening to tear a fragile social fabric in already deprived Lebanese communities. In response to these tensions, the government issued a new requirement on entry regulations for Syrian nationals; they now have to provide a heap of documentation and cash in order to cross the border.
These new regulations raise a number of very serious issues. The most fundamental concern is that they will prevent families trying to flee violence, and individuals with a well-founded fear of persecution, from being able to seek safety.
Poor living conditions of Syrians now in Lebanon are making things worse. Lebanon has a strict policy against refugee camps, a legacy of massive displacement around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The No Camp policy put refugees - and aid workers - into a very unique situation. Displaced Syrians are scattered amongst urban host communities in makeshift camps, or in collective shelters established in empty buildings. This may not sound that dire initially, but when you imagine a 25 percent increase in a country’s population largely living without infrastructures such as latrines and shelter, and without formal resources normally available in refugee camps, like food support and healthcare, you begin to get a snapshot of the situation in Lebanon today. Refugees are facing increasing pressure, discrimination and curfews from local authorities.
At the same time that refugees are struggling to make a life, host communities are taxed to the limit, as available resources cannot support the influx of people. Not only has this problem grown and grown over the past 4 years, but humanitarian aid has also only been targeting the refugees, ignoring the Lebanese hosting them. While local and international organizations have advocated for providing assistance to Lebanese communities, to enable them to better cope with the difficult situation, the scope and the emergency of the crisis forced humanitarian actors to concentrate on meeting the basic needs of the Syrian refugees, leaving all others affected by this challenge to struggle on their own.
Not surprisingly, significant tension in Lebanon is erupting between host communities and refugees. In the four years since the Civil War began, it has become clear that the current approach to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon needs to shift, in order to address the protracted aspects of the conflict. We must focus on improving the situation for everybody, before it’s too late. Lebanon needs an integrated approach, whereby humanitarian goals are advanced and, at the same time, so is peace building. Satisfying everybody’s basic needs, and creating an environment where coexistence is possible, are two goals that cannot be separated from each other.
As of late, national authorities seem to have taken the driver’s seat, significantly pressuring international donors to provide assistance to local communities. The new government-led Crisis Response Plan is centered on vulnerable groups, a definition that encompasses both Syrians and Lebanese in need of assistance. However, NGO workers justifiably fear that in reality the funding, now decreasing due to donors’ fatigue, will end up transitioning from a “Syrian-only” toward a “Lebanese-only” assistance strategy. Just as the “Syrian-only” approach was insufficient, a “Lebanese-only” approach will also fail to address major problems and reduce tensions.
But what if we could reconcile the two? What if governments and humanitarian and development agencies could work together to ensure that limited resources are targeting the immediate needs of both the Syrian and Lebanese communities, while also focusing on preventing tensions between refugees and locals?
Since 2013, Search for Common Ground Lebanon has been working with a number of local and international partners to increase dialogue and understanding between the Lebanese and Syrian refugees. Activities such as soccer games, joint recycling and waste management campaigns, intercultural forums and summer camps for teenagers create a space for the two groups to come together and build bonds that break down the tensions around scarce resources. We believe that the key to mitigating tensions is helping refugees become active citizens, positively contributing to the improvement of the host community, and re-humanizing them, turning them from a number to individuals with whom the host community members can relate. We see the benefits of this approach on a daily basis and all across the country, in Beirut, in the Southern regions, or in the Beeka.
When this approach is combined with a humanitarian system that supports both refugees and host communities, we see cooperation between groups blossom, improving the livelihood of everybody. Only building a strong coordination between humanitarian workers, peace builders, and local municipalities in Lebanon will we be able to protect Syrian refugees and Lebanese communities. Only by adopting a holistic perspective, will we satisfy not only their basic necessities, but also their fundamental human needs.
Jacquard is country director for Search for Common Ground Lebanon.
