Report on Syrian Refugee Camps near Lebanon

Even before the revolution started, citizens were complaining from a lack of jobs, corruption and political freedom. In March 2011, the southern city of Syria, Deraa had protests against the government which resulted the government to use deadly forces to end the small revolution they tried to begin. This has started the war that is presented today.

The United Nations has released a report in August 2012 stating that The Syrian government has violated both humanitarian and human rights law (UN News, 2012) Since the war has officially started in Syria in March 2011, huge number of camps have been formed around Europe near Syria to host refugees. The country has been set back decades and decades because of how it has been reduced to rubble after destroying schools, healthcare centres, historic lands and sanitation systems. Millions have been scattered creating the largest refugee crisis in our time. With the system not being in control, different groups, such as religious groups have joined the fight to control a territory. This war has become more of a sectarian conflict rather than a civil war between the government and the citizens. This has been set as the world's largest refugee crisis (Dowling, 2019)

During 2012, Jordan opened a camp near the border called Zaatari Camp as a temporary camp, but since then thousands of families have been there for years now. It is the second largest refugee camp in the world; September 2018 recorded 78,609 refugees within the camp (Data2.unhcr.org, 2019). Jordan already struggles with their economy and this has made it even harder for the people of Jordan to cope. However, it has not stopped them; to make sure other humans are safe and treated to their rights at least with whatever is possible to provide.

The United Nation is trying their best to put a stop to this disaster but Bashar Al-Assad is looking to stay on his chair for a while. During all this time, Refugee camps have been getting less and less attention to them as the war has been on for 8 years now. Abu Amar has written an article in The Guardian under the name of “Our life in the Zaatari refugee camp: no electricity, no space to sleep, no escape” (Amar, 2015). The title for his article can explain the life for most refugees in these camps.

When a crisis happens in a refugee camp, and as it is a refugee camp no one looks to solve it instantly as the war is still going on. However, there are different camps that could be facing the same issues such as lack of food or healthcare etc. Therefore, they receive the least help possible as everyone is seeking help from everywhere. Different crisis happens in camps; it does not stop the people or make them give up on life even after the damage they have gone through. This shows a strong believe within the Syrian refugees of the return to home one day.

Different organisations such as Oxfam, UNHRC and many more are trying to provide the most basic help for human rights such as clean water and washing facilities. But even with that being provided more; people tend to lose their lives in those camps due to lack of all kind of resources, even if it is available, there will not be enough for everyone. Not only this but there are pregnant women in those camps and they are delivering new born babies until this day with not enough healthcare being provided or enough doctors on the scene; this has resulted of babies losing their lives before they have had one and mothers emotionally disturbed.

“People are sick. Everywhere there is water. We cannot sleep at night.” Storm Norma hit Lebanon, the home of nearly 950,000 Syrian refugees (Champagne and Hariri, 2019). Bekaa Valley is one of the regions that host a refugee camp across Lebanon. Norma was able to flood the shelters they had to a destroyed condition where they could not have used it again. This has made a conflict within the refugees, as huge number of the refugees in the area were women and children. However, due to a lack of resources many of them had to relocate to survive for longer as this crisis had happened in the winter season and temperature levels were low and cold. Therefore, some had lost their lives to the storm and the water, and others to the temperature levels, lack of survival and warmth resources as their immune system had drowned with the days of not being healthy and living to the lowest standards of life.

UNHCR was taking lead in this and had been preparing for the winter with the refugees alongside the Lebanese authorities and other partners. Beside UNHCR pre-positioning stocks of emergency items, they have sent teams out to assist with the crisis and the damage that had happened. New mattresses and blankets been provided to them. However, due to a large number of refugees, the authorities decided to give the emergency items to the people with the worst conditions and been affected the most.

Refugee camps deals with conflicts every day. It differs from basic needs of living to breaking humanitarian laws and acts with no intention. However, when each camp has formed, management team and a leader been put in place with certain authorities to fulfil the people wants and needs. To make sure everyone gets a fair amount of their need as does everyone else. Therefore, when a crisis happens within a camp, the first people the refugees would seek are the authorities in charge weather it is an organisation or the army of the country the camp is located. The party in charge then tries to connect with the outside world of the camp seeking for help and donations to support the conditions within the camp and what the refugees need. Some camps could possibly been placed in an area that is suitable to grow in or use it for other needs. However, some refugees have started growing fruit and vegetables in the camps regardless the conditions they are facing. Therefore, refugee camps try to avoid conflicts as much as possible by using every resource that is possible to them. Not only this but everyone helps; the refugees, the citizens, the army and many more charitable organisations.