The grim reality faced by the Syrian refugees stranded in Lebanon
“I would go by sea if I could,” says Hiba Sayyed softly, her lips pursing in quiet anger as she speaks. “But it costs $5,000 and I don’t have that money. If I had it, yes, even if I might die in the sea I would go – life here is too hard.”
Ms Sayyed, 24, is just one of more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees being hosted by Lebanon, a tiny country that had a population of four million before civil war broke out in neighbouring Syria.
Her story is typical. A year or so ago, her husband went missing in their hometown of Ghouta – the Damascus suburb hit by a chemical weapons attack believed to be the work of the Assad government. Fearing for her life, she fled to Lebanon with her five children and now lives in poverty in an informal camp in the Chouf Mountains.
Source: www.independent.co.uk