UN Refugee Chief Visits Lebanon to Support Beirut Blast Survivors - Voice of America
Relative to its population size, Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees in the world.
The U.N. refugee agency has registered around 840,000 of the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees residing in the country. The agency says more than 200,000 of the refugees live in Beirut and surrounding areas.
The UNHCR says 13 refugees were killed in the explosion, 57 are still missing and 224 are injured. Baloch tells VOA his agency needs $35 million to scale up humanitarian operations over the next three months. He says aid will include support to 25,000 vulnerable households or more than 84,000 people severely affected by the blast in Beirut.
“The economic crisis, COVID and now this explosion makes life very difficult for the Lebanese as well as for refugees," he said. "Our focus now is on emergency response providing people with shelter where it is needed but also try to make sure that those who need our immediate help even for day-to-day living, they receive that help as well.”UNRWA says some 200,000 Palestinians in 12 refugee camps, who were in dire straits before the explosion, are suffering from its impact and should be included in any emergency response.
▻https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/un-refugee-chief-visits-lebanon-support-beirut-blast-survivors
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