Postcard from Lebanon

This is a the first in an occasional series of missives from a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, awaiting the outcome of their UNHCR assessment.

‘Dear Reader

I will convey to you part of the suffering of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon in all aspects of life, and I will also be talking about the difficulty of life since the journey of torture began when they forcibly left their home country, Syria.

If I talk about all the aspects of life in suffering in Lebanon then this will take a very long time, but I will shed light on different issues. The most important of these is racial discrimination. Syrian refugees suffer greatly from racism in dealing with most of the Lebanese people. They are repeatedly exposed to various incidents that affect their dignity and spirit. They are unable to disclose this in most cases because they are deprived of their civil rights. This is because there are no legal controls to protect them from various abuses, the most important of which are repeated physical attacks, verbal abuse, and in some cases kidnapping and rape.

Many things obstruct Syrian refugees in Lebanon, so some refugees prefer to flee by sea and risk losing their lives by drowning in order to live the remainder of their life in better and somewhat happier conditions.

There are a lot of living and social difficulties and extreme poverty, as most of the refugees live in extreme poverty without having the basics to live. This forces them to live in shame, poverty and extreme suffering expecting the whole world to look at them with mercy and justice one day. But who knows when this day will come, if ever.

Thank you for reading.

Mohamed’