UN Voices Concern Over Lebanon’s New Restrictions on Entry of Syrian Refugees

The United Nations expressed concern after Lebanon introduced unprecedented entry restrictions for Syrians on Monday, imposing visa-like requirements in an apparent effort to curb the inflow of refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war in massive numbers. Ron Redmond, regional spokesman for the UNHCR, said: “We are looking at these new procedures with some interest, because those procedures don’t make mention of the agreement of the government to continue to allow the most vulnerable cases to come through.” He said that even after informal limitations were introduced last year, the Lebanese government was still allowing in Syrians deemed to be “urgent cases,” such as lone women fleeing with their children, those needing urgent medical care and children separated from their families. “We didn’t see any reference to that in these new regulations,” Mr Redmond said. “We want to get some kind of official documentation and description of how that’s going to work.” Meanwhile, a severe snowstorm is hitting the Levant on Tuesday, and is seen to last until Sunday, exposing 100,000s of Syrian refugees to hail, snow and biting cold temperatures of -4 degrees Centigrade. The storm is expected to bring strong winds, rain and snow, to the region, leaving refugees who live in tents and makeshift shelters struggling to stay warm and dry. Most refugees are living in extremely difficult conditions amid shortage of heating equipment. A few days ago, a Syrian child refugee frozen to death in Lebanon, in a repeat of last year’s extremely low temperature that also killed a number of Syrian children. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Arabiya)