Syrian women and children in a refugee camp in Bar Elias in the Bekaa plain, Lebanon

    The refugee crisis More than one in every five people living in the country is a refugee

    In March 2022, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, had officially registered nearly 840,000 refugees from Syria staying in Lebanon. Their living conditions are poor: some 90 per cent of the refugees are living in poverty. About 60 per cent of the Syrian refugee children of school age do not go to school and child labour is widespread.

    Most Syrian refugees arrive in North Lebanon, a region where the social situation is already under strain. There is a risk that the acute crisis in Lebanon and the increasing poverty also hitting the Lebanese population could lead to distributional disputes arising between the refugees and local people.

    The Bourj el-Barajneh camp for Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese capital Beirut

    The Bourj el-Barajneh camp for Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese capital Beirut

    The Bourj el-Barajneh camp for Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese capital Beirut

    The Lebanese government is seeking to significantly restrict the number of refugees coming into the country. To this end, it has introduced more stringent border controls and now requires entry visas. Lebanon is not a party to the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951. This means that Syrian refugees can register in Lebanon but gain no legal benefits from doing so. The plan on the return of displaced persons approved by the Lebanese government in 2020 increases the pressure for a return of refugees to Syria.


    Further information on refugees and displacement

    Refugee camp in Nigeria

    Displaced people Internal link

    New drinking water pipes are laid at a house in the city of Mafraq in Jordan.

    Stabilising host regions Internal link

    to the Lebanon overview page

    As at: 21/04/2022