One-fifth of the people living in Lebanon are refugees who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said there are more than 842,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but Lebanese authorities believe the actual figure could be higher. An additional 52,000 Palestinians who were living in Syria also have taken refuge in Lebanon. The UNHCR figures do not include hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for decades. Lebanese authorities have refused to establish official camps for Syrian refugees. Many live in hundreds of unofficial tent settlements across the tiny country, mainly on Lebanon's northern and eastern peripheries. Wealthier refugees rent apartments in towns and cities but face exorbitant rents. The U.N. refugee agency said "30 percent live in substandard shelters" and 72 percent are "in need of continued humanitarian assistance." The refugee crisis also impacts Lebanon's population by squeezing the country's resources, the UNHCR said, putting the number of Lebanese affected by the influx at 1.2 million. Of the Syrian refugees, 280,000 are children of school age, but only 130,000 of them have been provided with education services, the refugee agency said. The UNHCR projected Monday that the number of Syrian refugees in the Middle East will nearly double over the next year to exceed 4 million, putting an enormous strain on neighboring countries.
