UNHCR States 88% of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Hope to Return Home But!

Published October 22nd, 2018 - 05:36 GMT
Lebanese security forces check identity and papers of Syrian refugees getting ready to cross into Syria from the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, Lebanon. (AFP)
Lebanese security forces check identity and papers of Syrian refugees getting ready to cross into Syria from the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, Lebanon. (AFP)

The head of the U.N. agency for refugees in Lebanon has said that 88 percent of Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon want to return to their homeland, the state-run National News Agency reported Sunday.

The UNHCR official, Mireille Girard, suggested that the main reasons preventing Syrians from returning are practical, security concerns, and have nothing to do with the question of political settlement in Syria or the need to rebuild homes.

“They are asking: Will I have to fight if I go back? Do I recuperate my home? Is my house still my house? Will I be punished for being a refugee? Will I recover my documents?” Girard was quoted as saying during a roundtable discussion Friday organized by the Institute for Development, Research Advocacy and Applied Care (IDRAAC), an NGO dedicated to mental health in Lebanon. “These are exactly the things that we are working on with the authorities in Syria.”

Girard also dismissed the notion that healthcare is keeping refugees in Lebanon. “Healthcare is not an incentive either for refugees to remain in Lebanon or for them to return earlier to their country. Other considerations prevail for such decisions.”

Girard noted that healthcare in Syria is subsidized. “So why would people not be attracted to go back? It’s cheaper there and they don’t have a rent to pay.”

Girard said that three quarters of the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon lives under the poverty line ($4 per day), and more than a half of the refugee population is living under the extreme poverty line of less than $3 dollars per day. “However, they still have hope in the future and 88 percent of the Syrian refugees want to go back home. Our role is to try to make this intent possible.”

According to Girard, refugees in Lebanon pay an average of $200 per month for rent.

“If a Syrian refugee is lucky to work, he would work two weeks a month, earn around $170 a month, which is not even enough for the rent.”

This article has been adapted from its original source.

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