Le commissaire à la gestion des crises, Janez Lenarčič, en visite au Liban a annoncé que 60 millions d’euros d’aide humanitaire seront alloués aux aides en faveur des personnes les plus vulnérables du pays, y compris les réfugiés syriens et les Libanais. Cette aide humanitaire qualifiée par le communiqué de l’UE comme vitale comprendra une aide alimentaire, un soutien en espèces, et à certains secteurs comme ceux de l’éducation et les services de santé, cela “indépendamment du statut ou de la nationalité.”
Cette nouvelle aide s’effectuera via des ONG locales et internationales ainsi que via des agences de l’ONU et porte l’aide totale de l’UE à 860 millions d’euros depuis 2011.
Cette information intervient alors que les tensions entre libanais et réfugiés syriens qui bénéficiaient jusqu’à présent de l’essentiel des aides a amené à des incidents dans certaines parties du Liban.
Après 3 ans de crise, la livre libanaise a perdu 98% de sa valeur face au dollar, amenant à une paupérisation accrue de la population. Plus de 90% de la population vit ainsi sous le seuil de pauvreté et plus d’un tiers dans un état de pauvreté extrême.
Focus
Lebanon ranks 2nd among the countries that host the most Syrian refugees in proportion to the local population, (High Commissioner for Refugees entitled Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019). The country of cedars also has a large community of Palestinian refugees whose presence was at the origin of the civil war from 1975 to 1990.
According to the High Commissioner for Refugees, Lebanon had 916,156 Syrian refugees on its soil at the end of 2019, compared to 949,666 a year earlier. 910,600 refugees are believed to be of Syrian origin.
As a reminder, a report prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the United Nations Development Program in 2020 on the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Lebanese economy between 2011 and 2018 estimated the cost of the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, impacting all sectors, including education and electricity, but also causing a fall in the Gross Domestic Product while Lebanon was impacted by a serious economic crisis that emerged in broad daylight in 2019 and characterized by a rapid deterioration of the parity between the Lebanese pound and the dollar. Thus, the national currency lost more than 90% of its value against the greenback. 82% of the Lebanese population would now live below the poverty line and 36% in a state of extreme poverty, leading to tensions with Syrian refugees.
However, some political parties have so far refused to discuss the return of Syrian refugees by refusing to discuss the necessary procedures with Damascus, even if the Lebanese authorities have endorsed a plan to promote this return in 2020.
Faced with the deterioration of social and economic conditions, some Syrian but also Palestinian refugees and even Lebanese nationals are trying to exodus to Europe, in particular via boat people bound for Cyprus. Several boats have been intercepted in recent months.
