Attachments
Summary
Lebanon has one of the world’s highest numbers of registered refugees per capita with over 30 per cent of the country’s population being a refugee. The current number of registered Syrian refugees stands at 1,069,111 (as of Jan. 2016), which does not include non-registered Syrian refugees. As of December 2015, UNHCR Lebanon submitted 13,312 Syrian refugees under resettlement and humanitarian admission programs, of which 5,808 were actually resettled.
In addition, UNHCR referred 5,000 Syrians to Canada under the Humanitarian Transfer Program. Refugees remain spread over 1,301 communities across the country. There are a further 20,224 non-Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, 90 per cent of whom are Iraqis, as well as 42,189 Palestine Refugees from Syria (PRS) registered by UNRWA, in addition to approximately 270,000 Palestine Refugees in Lebanon (PRL). IOM and the Lebanese High Relief Commission recorded 5,245 households of Lebanese returnees from Syria (28,574 individuals), though estimates put the number of Lebanese returnees as high as 35,000 people.
The convergence of negative factors such as increased poverty, depletion of resources, some reduction in aid, in addition to a disproportionate socio-economic and demographic impact of the Syria crisis on Lebanon, are leading to increased vulnerability. Yet, the increased support to and through local institutions and the continuation of large scale humanitarian programming has prevented the situation from slipping out of control. Incidents of violence between Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians remained very limited with no or little impact on programming but should not be understimated and should be continuously monitored. 2015 marked the first year of an innovative and joint approach between the Government of Lebanon and the international community to responding to the Syria crisis. The integrated humanitarian and stabilization approach of the LCRP allowed for the implementation of programmes to strengthen national capacities to address long-term poverty and social tensions while also meeting humanitarian needs. It underscored the leadership role of the Ministry of Social Affairs and line ministries in the overall coordination of the response.
At year-end, significant achievements have been made towards the objectives of the LCRP. As of December 2015, $1.17 billion has been mobilized to support the activities of over 100 partners across the country and in all sectors. Over 1.7 million people received some form of assistance as a result of completed activities.