Freezing conditions in Middle East worsen plight of displaced Syrians

A fierce winter storm that has unleashed barrages of rain and snow on parts of the Middle East this week has compounded the misery of the millions of Syrians displaced by their country’s civil war and left the organisations that seek to help them scrambling to keep up.

Cold winds, driving rains and layers of snow have hit encampments in Syria’s neighbouring countries, flooding settlements, collapsing tents and leaving refugees shivering in the cold and increasing the chances for illness, aid groups say. Three Syrians, including a child, were found dead in southern Lebanon after getting caught in a storm, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

“It is like the seven plagues of the Bible falling on these poor people,” said Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is helping displaced Syrians across the region. Even before the storm gathered on Tuesday, nearly four years of war in Syria had created a humanitarian crisis, with one-third of the23 million inhabitants displaced and more than three million of those registered as refugees in other countries.

A global report released by the UN refugee agency on Wednesday noted that Syrians had become the largest refugee population cared for by the group, displacing the Afghans, who had held the spot for more than 30 years. Most of Syria’s refugees have fled to neighbouring countries that have paid steep economic costs for providing sanctuary and shelter. Refugee camps dot southern Turkey, and Jordan’s northern cities have swelled, creating tensions with local populations.

Lebanon, a country of about 4.4 million before the Syrian war, now has 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees, although many believe the actual number of displaced is higher. Many of the refugees had sought shelter in tents, unfinished buildings, warehouses and animal sheds, making them more vulnerable when the storm hit. By Wednesday night, the storm had sprayed the Lebanese coast and parts of Jordan, Israel and the Gaza Strip with rain and hail. It left mountains in Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights hooded with snow. Television showed Syrians in Lebanon pushing snow off their roofs with brooms and clustering around gas stoves and wood fires. Fouad Othman, a Syrian refugee living with his wife and two children in a tent in eastern Lebanon, said by telephone they had been keeping warm by burning wood or buying diesel when they could afford it.

Collapsing shelters

“My concern now is not losing my tent,” Othman said, adding he had been up all night adjusting the tent spikes and knocking snow off the roof so the structure would not collapse. The UN refugee agency in Lebanon said that the day had passed without any major catastrophes, although one encampment near the ocean had flooded and tents and shelters had collapsed across the country.

The agency’s team was distributing kits to reinforce shelters, as well as blankets, mattresses and other aid.

Ninette Kelley, the agency’s Lebanon representative, said her teams had been working since October to prepare for winter and had distributed aid to over a half-million refugees. Yet she said the challenge was greater than ever. Not only had the number of refugees gone up, but the UN estimated the percentage in “insecure dwellings” had risen to 55 per cent from 35 per cent last year.

Aid bodies have faced resistance from local communities to projects that could improve life for refugees. "There is a sense in some areas that if we do these improvements, the refugees will never leave," Kelley said. – (New York Times)