Analysis by Dina Richani, Staff Writer

May 13th, 2020

As host to the highest number of refugees per capita, a COVID-19 outbreak would be detrimental to refugee camps in Lebanon. Even so, pandemic precautions are being absent in practice due to a more alarming threat, hunger. 

Syrian refugees are facing the financial burden like any other Lebanese resident. “No one is abiding with social distancing,” says Abdallah El Hussein in an interview conducted by the writer. Syrian refugee, El Hussein explains the situation in Shatila Camp, the home to an estimate of 16,000 people. 

 “Ninety percent of the refugees had their jobs stopped and so the ones that were working are currently unemployed,” says El Hussein. The majority of Syrian refugees in Lebanon receive a daily salary from agriculture, construction work or janitorial sectors that have been paused since the breaking coronavirus. “From the refugees that are receiving aid from the UNHCR, the money is being earned at the 1,515L.L. rate while the price of basic needs are increasing drastically in lira” (translated). 

On Thursday, May 7, the United Nations, along with their local collaborators, began an Emergency Appeal seeking for US$350 million to cope with COVID-19 ramifications. "It is crucial to secure the requested funds so that those most in need can receive urgent humanitarian assistance," said the Director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Lebanon.

The small nation already struggling economically, holds an official estimate of 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Palestinian refugees. The country that is priorly strained and insufficiently governed now has to deal with higher pressure stemmed by the outbreak.

What precautions has Lebanon taken to respond to and prevent the Coronavirus outbreak in camps?

Along with the nationwide lockdown, twenty-one municipalities around Lebanon have introduced additional measures on the circulation of Syrian refugees to combat the pandemic. 

The municipality of Baalbek allows the Syrian refugees to manoeuvre between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m, strictly to perform needed errands at markets or pharmacies. The municipality also stated that it would be confiscating the refugees' documentation if caught violating the restricted timing. 

In Bar Elias, host to approximately 30,000 registered refugees and possibly more, not everyone is allowed to move in the designated time frame. With the municipality's arrangement, each family appoints an individual to bring basic needs to them. The measures imposed on the refugees are different from the rest of the population in Lebanon and are highly discriminatory. This worsens the challenges they already face, especially when it comes to the delivery of humanitarian goods into the camps. 

As concerns rise about the spread of the coronavirus in the highly packed camps, the government closed the Jalil camp at the end of April when a Palestinian woman tested positive. Accordingly, medical experts from the Rafic Hariri University hospital tested some people who had interacted with her and found four new cases of coronavirus amongst them. In collaboration with Lebanese security forces, the factions responsible for the camp placed a lockdown to prevent anyone from entering the camp or leaving it. 

Health Minister Hamad Hassan said that refugee health care is a duty that has to be shared by Lebanon and the United Nations agencies. However, he added that the international community is taking too long to take action. "The international community with its U.N. agencies is a bit late in putting plans, thinking about establishing a field hospital or supporting the health ministry so that it can carry out its obligations toward its people: Lebanese society in addition to the Palestinian and Syrian brothers," said Hamad.

The UNHCR has organized awareness campaigns and given the refugees hygiene products through local partners. They also provided testing kits to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital. "We are all working around the clock," stated Lisa Abou Khaled, communications officer at UNHCR in Lebanon. The United Nations aided the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health's preparedness to coronavirus cases through working with national organizations.

However, refugees are stating that support is not being sufficient. 

"They gave us an awareness session and one bar of soap each, but this is not enough," stated Syrian refugee, Mohamad Bakhas.

Non-governmental organizations now more than ever are receiving calls for aid. In an exclusive interview, Malak Yacout, Co-Founder of the Volunteer Circle states that with the current health crisis, excessive aid is needed. “The number of volunteers wanting to contribute to NGOs has tripled,” she further notes. The Volunteer Circle introduced a Crisis Action Section with more than 24 organizations for people to aid with community needs. 

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, organizations that operated in other sectors were starting to focus on providing basic survival needs for beneficiaries.”Organizations started to channel their response towards food parcels and hygiene kits, some were relying on local or international institutional donors, and some were relying on crowdfunding provided on the platform,” says Yacout. 

The economic crisis has changed the face of poverty in Lebanon; it has made it more drastic for all. The current pandemic and the economic crisis wreck the financial situation of many families, where even before the crisis, levels of poverty reached more than 30%, according to the World Bank. The World Food Programme estimates that between 2019 and 2020, the number of Syrian refugee families unable to meet basic needs such as food will increase from 55% to 83%.

Before 2011, Syrians made up 54% of the agricultural workforce in the Beqaa and 90% in Akkar. Lebanon can still improve its economy and the financial state of refugees if it abides by the Minister of Agriculture's newly introduced tax on uncultivated land. The tax will encourage farmers to plant and improve the economy if proper training is provided to Syrian and Lebanese agricultural workers for better technological practices and improved human resources.