Severe weather may take lives among displaced in the Middle East. Storms, snow and freezing cold are threatening lives among exhausted Syrian refugees in the Middle East. Norwegian Refugee Council fears that the insufficient assistance may have fatal consequences for refugees and internally displaced from Lebanon to Northern Iraq.
Heavy snowfall in Lebanon January 7, 2015. Yesterday staff from NRC Lebanon’s Bekaa office were working with refugees to put in place flood mitigation measures in advance of the forecast harsh storm which hit overnight. Field teams distributed 1,205 plywood sheets and 885 bricks as floor-raising kits for tents in two settlements in the town of Sarain, and 250 wooden pallets to ensure a clear pathway in five settlements in the town at risk of flooding.
Niamh Murnaghan, NRC’s Country Director in Lebanon said, “This morning residents of these informal settlements awoke to a knee-deep blanket of snow. With roads impassable in Bekaa, our staff have not been able to reach refugee settlements, but refugees have sent photos of themselves clearing the snow from their tents.” Photo credit: NRC Lebanon/Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“Similar weather conditions two years ago led to unnecessary deaths in the war-torn region. Now there are millions more Syrian and Iraqi refugees and internally displaced in dire need of help. We see that all the winterization programs we have undertaken are not enough and fear for many more unnecessary deaths if emergency support is not scaled up immediately”, urges Secretary General Jan Egeland of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
The snow storm in parts of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan is making the emergency relief work harder. Yesterday, staff from NRC’s Bekaa office were working with refugees in informal tented settlements to put in place flood mitigation measures in advance of the harsh storm which hit overnight. Field teams distributed 1,205 plywood sheets and 885 bricks as floor-raising kits for tents in two settlements in the town of Sarain, and 250 wooden pallets to ensure a clear pathway in five settlements in the town at risk of flooding. “This morning residents of these informal settlements awoke to a knee-deep blanket of snow. With roads impassable in Bekaa, our staff have not been able to reach refugee settlements, but photos sent to NRC by the refugees show the impact of the snow on their living conditions”, Niamh Murnaghan, NRC’s Country Director in Lebanon said.
In Southern Lebanon, gales and heavy rain resulted in severe damage to tents and other shelters. NRC was able to assist in rehousing refugee families whose living spaces were no longer habitable.
Temperatures are also freezing in the town of Dohuk in Northern Iraq where NRCs Emergency Response Team leader Kate Norton is currently present. “It is bitterly cold here now, particularly at night. Thousands of internally displaced Iraqis are living in unfinished and abandoned buildings totally exposed to the elements. There are no doors, nor windows and the roofs are leaking. There are severe weather warnings issued for the rest of this week and particularly in the mountain areas of Dohuk Governorate where many displaced have taken refuge”, says Norton.
Funding shortfalls, coupled with the sudden and large increase in number of displaced means that the assistance NRC provides will not be able to cover all the needs. Only 54% of the humanitarian appeal for the Syrian refugee response was funded in 2014. “NRC is doing all we can to support the displaced, but the task is enormous. It is a struggle against the clock, as the temperatures are already sub-zero. There is an urgent need for the international community witnessing the desperation of our fellow human beings to scale up the assistance dramatically,” says Secretary General Egeland.
NRC has some 1000 aid workers in the region supporting one million refugees and displaced with distribution of heaters, blankets, carpets and plastic sheeting. In Jordan alone NRC has distributed more than 300,000 winter items, including clothes, heaters and blankets inside of camps, and distributed cash to vulnerable families residing outside of formal camps.
(More photos):
Heavy snowfall in Lebanon January 7, 2015. Yesterday staff from NRC Lebanon’s Bekaa office were working with refugees to put in place flood mitigation measures in advance of the forecast harsh storm which hit overnight. Field teams distributed 1,205 plywood sheets and 885 bricks as floor-raising kits for tents in two settlements in the town of Sarain, and 250 wooden pallets to ensure a clear pathway in five settlements in the town at risk of flooding.
Niamh Murnaghan, NRC’s Country Director in Lebanon said, “This morning residents of these informal settlements awoke to a knee-deep blanket of snow. With roads impassable in Bekaa, our staff have not been able to reach refugee settlements, but refugees have sent photos of themselves clearing the snow from their tents.” Photo credit: NRC Lebanon/Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Heavy snowfall in Lebanon January 7, 2015. Yesterday staff from NRC Lebanon’s Bekaa office were working with refugees to put in place flood mitigation measures in advance of the forecast harsh storm which hit overnight. Field teams distributed 1,205 plywood sheets and 885 bricks as floor-raising kits for tents in two settlements in the town of Sarain, and 250 wooden pallets to ensure a clear pathway in five settlements in the town at risk of flooding.
Niamh Murnaghan, NRC’s Country Director in Lebanon said, “This morning residents of these informal settlements awoke to a knee-deep blanket of snow. With roads impassable in Bekaa, our staff have not been able to reach refugee settlements, but refugees have sent photos of themselves clearing the snow from their tents.” Photo credit: NRC Lebanon/Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Photo: Joud Halaseh/NRC
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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