Lebanon faces pressure of Syrian refugees

Nafat from Homs bakes bread outside her shelter in Turbide, Bekaa Valley. UNHCR/L.Addario

The international community is being urged once again to help Lebanon support over one million Syrian refugees.
The appeal has been made by Ross Mountain, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Friday, he asked how many refugees the international community expects Lebanon to take in and still remain a viable state.
Mr Mountain said that today Lebanon has the highest proportion per capita of refugees in the world.
"It is also an unprecedented example of pressure on a country arising from a refugee-driven emergency. The 1.1 million refugees currently registered in Lebanon, which is about 25 per cent of the population, is equivalent to something like 80 million Mexicans coming into the south of the United States over 18 months or over 16 million refugees in France, 15 million in the UK and two million in Switzerland." (29")
Mr Mountain said Syrian refugees are still coming to Lebanon at a rate of 50,000 a month.
It is projected that by the end of this year there will be 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon,  equivalent to a third of the population.