The Truth About Refugees’ Lives
These challenges and complicated laws make Syrians want to leave the country, which many try to do legally by getting a visa. They are not easy to get, so many try to leave Lebanon illegally by paying human traffickers to reach Europe.
According to the U.N., the number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon has started to diminish from official figures of more than 1.1 million.
Many Syrians face problems when they need medical care in Lebanon. Medicine and hospitalization are expensive. The government subsidizes these costs for Lebanese citizens, but Syrians have to buy costly health insurance or pay cash.
Many Syrians who fled the war lost almost everything and are unable to pay for health insurance. I met several people willing to risk travelling back into Syria, to places like Latakia, where medical treatment is cheaper than in Lebanon.
One lady told me with tears in her eyes how, on the road back to Syria to receive treatment, she was wounded by a bomb blast. “What a life we have now,” she said “as if we were born to suffer. What kind of life is this? Sometimes I think dying is much better than living. The ones who’ve died have rest now, and no suffering and pain.”
Barriers to Education
The school system in Lebanon is different from Syria, not only because of the curriculum but also the language, and students need to work hard to fit in. However the biggest problem is fees. I met several families whose children were not going to school because they can’t pay the fees or even buy books. Many children now work to help bring their family an income.
“What can we do?” a mother asked me. “The first year, some organizations helped us, but now, in our fourth year, people are tired of helping us. It is better for my children to find a job and start work at an early age.” I worry about these children—what will happen to them after missing several years of education? What will happen to them in the future?
Facing an Exodus
When I met refugees in Lebanon some years ago, most of them said that they were expecting the war to end within a couple of weeks or months and that they would be able to return to their homes and jobs. But the war has continued for 4 1/2 years now, and there’s still no end in sight. Because of the challenges they face in Lebanon, most of them are now doing their best to find a way to leave the country with no plans to return.
Families wait for some kind of miracle from Western embassies that will get them into Europe. Because Christian families will not live in refugee camps, their chances of getting to Europe with the help of the U.N. are very small, and their only option is to use smugglers.
I met a widow who’s been living for two years with her son and two other families in two small bedrooms. Imagine 11 people living in two bedrooms. When I asked about her son, tears came to her eyes: “Both of us worked for three years and we lived with two families in a small apartment. We found out that living in Beirut had no meaning and that the war is only continuing. We tried to find a way to reach Europe, but we couldn’t get a visa. Then we collected all that we had and gave it to the smugglers. My son went from Beirut to Izmir in Turkey and then from Turkey on a boat to Greece and then, after several weeks, he managed to reach Germany. Thank God he survived. Now he is in Germany and arranging all the papers; I hope that I will be able to join him at some point.”
I asked why she didn’t go with him. “The money we collected didn’t cover the cost of two people so we decided just to send him. I can wait and suffer for another year in order to join him.”
*not his real name, changed for his protection
