“It’s already a complex situation with profound humanitarian consequences,” said humanitarian coordinator Yacoub El Hillo, the highest ranking UN humanitarian official in Syria.
“If you’re talking about five million people displaced internally and two million people who are now refugees in neighbouring countries; if you have one million refugee children who are now away from their homes and their schools, this is already a dramatic situation. So imagine if this is to be compounded by a military strike? It will only add to the suffering,” he told IRIN, citing possible displacement of civilians, increased exposure to risk, and reduction in service delivery.
Lebanon is already home to more than 710,000 Syrian refugees - equivalent to more than 15 percent of its original population - who are staying with friends and family, renting apartments, squatting in abandoned or half-finished buildings or establishing informal settlements. There are no formal camps for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“The shelter options are exhausted,” Russo told IRIN. “We can’t absorb any more.”
Jordan’s Za’atari camp could take in at least 20,000 more people; and a new Jordanian camp, called Azraq, is set to open in two weeks with a capacity of 50,000.
But any influx will necessarily strain services that are already stretched in Za’atari and not yet ready in Azraq.
