Lebanon reduces aid to Syrian refugees

2012-07-10

Lebanon's Higher Relief Committee announced Tuesday (July 10th) that it curtailed aid for the thousands of Syrian refugees staying in the country because of a lack of funds.

"We stopped providing food and hospitalisation at 12 pm Tuesday given that the number of refugees has risen dramatically," said Ibrahim Bashir, head of the committee, according to Lebanon's The Daily Star.

"Hospital bills are extremely high," he said. "In June alone the bill reached $1.2 million."

The committee's annual budget is $4 million, drawn primarily from donations and government funding. In March, Lebanon's Finance Ministry approved $2 million in stop-gap funds to prevent the organisation from closing, but now the committee needs more funding.

The committee is currently re-evaluating its aid distribute methods and will soon set a new budget.

There are an estimated 30,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Bashir said the actual number may be closer to 60,000.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ARTICLE? (TOTAL VOTES: 2)

1 Like(s)1 Dislike(s)

READER COMMENTS

عبد الرحمن عليوي

2012-7-12

If we spoke about the crimes of al-Asad, I think that he went beyond all the meanings of humanity, and this proves that the regime of Al-Asad works hard to eliminate the innocent citizens who pay with their lives as the price because they want freedom. I wish to know whether the price of freedom is death. Why did Bashar use all this violence towards the citizens? I think this has no justification, because the crimes of l-Asad exceeded all the human meanings. Every day, he commits more horrible crimes against the civilians and he used military suppression and repeated shelling against the residential complexes using the heavy arms. Is there a man who uses the rockets to shell his people? Is this the new mission of the Syrian army instead of protecting the citizens from foreign aggression? However, they attacked their compatriots, removing all the honorable history of the Syrian army, which entered into wars to liberate their homes and protect their citizens. Al-Asad works in a horrible way as he kills and commits many crimes and then come out to speak to the mass media as if he did nothing against the civilians. Rather he uses jokes in most of his speeches as if he is mocking what is happening.