More than 20,000 enter Lebanon in 48 hours

Beirut - 21 July 2012: An estimated 5,000 cars crossed legally into Lebanon through the official Masnaa border post during the past 48 hours carrying more than 20,000 Syrians.

The checkpoint, which is only 36km from Damascus, usually handles fewer than 1,000 cars each day although traffic picked up substantially during the past several weeks.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands fled their country through other crossings in the north, while an undetermined number trekked to Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Although many of the Syrians entering Lebanon were staying with relatives, a significant number required emergency housing, which is why the Lebanese minister of social affairs, Wael Abu Faour, requested government approval to open school buildings for the newest arrivals.

Between March 2011 and early July 2012, Lebanon officially welcomed about 30,000 Syrians who registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), even if the government's Higher Relief Committee announced that the actual numbers were larger.

Non-Governmental organisations like the Red Cross and the UNHCR appealed for support, as they could no longer provide refugees with food or medical care because of limited funding. Meanwhile, Beirut lacked the logistical wherewithal to care for the swelling numbers, and was immersed in a particularly ugly debate as to whether the State ought to set up formal refugee camps.

Advocates for the camps argued that such a move was needed to ease the economic burden on over-stretched communities in the North and the Bekaa` Valley - where most Syrians who crossed during the past 18 months were staying -as well as to encourage foreign governments to channel whatever aid directly to the needy.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Junblatt and Samir Franjieh, a March 14 official, supported the creation of such camps to accommodate the unending flow of Syrians fleeing the civil war primarily on humanitarian grounds.

Still, undeniable political motives also prompted them to call for the camps, especially since March 8 leaders came out strongly against them.

Led by Hezbollah, the anti-camp arguments hovered around the logic that such facilities could be used to smuggle weapons into Syria, even if the bulk of weapons used in the civil war was indigenously provided.

For Shaikh Naeem Qasim this was a foregone conclusion as the second highest-ranking Hezbollah official asserted: "We cannot accept refugee camps for Syrians in Lebanon because any camp for Syrians in Lebanon will turn into a military pocket that will be used as a launch pad against Syria and then against Lebanon."

Although over 150,000 Syrians were now stranded in Jordan and perhaps 50,000 were in Turkey, the number of "refugees" in Lebanon probably topped the 80,000 figure in recent days. Beirut loathed the very idea of hosting new Arab refugees on top of Palestinian exiles it has hosted since 1948.

While the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East estimated the numbers of Palestinians in Lebanon at 425,640 in 2010, the actual numbers were probably higher.

Few wished to see a new wave of settlers in a more or less permanent situation, though Lebanon remained a good neighbour for the Syrian people, as it was to the Palestinians, and was most likely to welcome those fleeing for their lives.

source: Gulf News