São Paulo – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released a statement this Tuesday (18) appealing for help to be able to provide aid in winter time to 4.57 million Syrians and Iraqis displaced in their own countries or living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. The cost of the aid plan for the winter in the Northern Hemisphere is estimated at USD 343 million, but the agency doesn’t have enough funds itself. The information is from the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna.
The announcement was made during a visit to Lebanon by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly Clements. UNHCR added that it will launch a regional campaign to ask private donors to help improve life conditions of the refugees with the construction of shelters and sanitation systems.
The UN agency also said that near 55,000 families of refugees are living in makeshift conditions in Lebanon, occupying tents, parking lots, barns and under construction buildings, and that they are in need of, in addition to better living conditions, blankets, heaters and suitable clothing.
According to Kuna, last month a report by the UN stated that from the more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, 70% are below the poverty line.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
