Lebanon is facing grave challenges due to the overflow of Syrian
refugees into the country. These challenges vary in nature between
political, economic, and security-related threats.
While the government
has officially adopted a policy of open borders and neutrality towards
the Syrian conflict, it has failed to deal with the refugee problem. Its
response was circumstantial and incidental, whereby no arrangements
were made beforehand to deal with this worrying emergency. According to
Naaman, the plan that was developed by the government in collaboration
with international organizations initially aimed to deal with a
projected number of only 200,000 refugees.
It is estimated that there are currently one million refugees in Lebanon up from approximately 200,000 a year ago.
