Mrs. Nora Joumblatt, founder of ‘Kayani’ Foundation, presented the following paper for the European Socialist Parliament which convened in Beirut:

As we all know, the Syria Crisis is the largest political, humanitarian, and development challenge of our times.

I established Kayany Foundation in 2013, to help respond to this challenge by providing Syrian refugees with desperately needed services in Lebanon. I represent a small, independent NGO that is focused primarily on the education of refugee children.

We provide non-formal education based on the Lebanese curriculum to 2000 students in 6 school, we have partnered with the American University of Beirut and the Ministry of Social Affairs to bring education to the most vulnerable children living in miserable conditions in Informal Tented Settlements.
Before I address our topic on “how can the EU support host countries, a roadmap for the future”, I’d like to thank all of you who have traveled here to witness first hand the difficulties we face, this act solidarity is fundamental to us.

As a Syrian and a refugee from an earlier time; I would also like to start by saying that; the EU refugee crisis is set against the backdrop of the failure of the International Community to address the humanitarian crisis- let alone the political one –inside Syria itself.

This is not a “refugee crisis,” but a Syrian war crisis, the direct result of four years of a country’s descent into hell and the world’s failure to do anything substantial about it. Barrel bombs have been raining on neighborhoods, whole towns are cut off from food and supplies, villages have emptied, and schools have closed. Yet, when it comes to the plight of refugees, the West continues to focus on the symptoms rather than on the source of the problem.

The crisis has reached a point where, unless we end the war, the country will slowly empty itself – a hemorrhaging of its brightest and best, its young and old, escaping unspeakable horrors in the largest refugee migration since World War II.

We should remember that the Syrian refugee crisis comes just after the Iraqi refugee crisis, which had displaced around two million Iraqi citizens towards the very same countries: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In addition, the two crises hit countries where the vast majority of the world’s largest and longest-standing refugee population, namely the Palestinians, still lives.

None of the host countries regards itself as country of durable settlement for new refugees. Lebanon is not party to the Geneva Refugee Convention. It gives refugees an ill-defined denomination as displaced Syrians or de facto refugees. Lebanon is neither a country of asylum, nor a final destination for refugees, let alone a country of resettlement. This creates human rights abuses as well as friction within host communities.

Nations are not the only lines dissecting this part of the world. Religious and ethnic communities, span many Arab nations, and are also of paramount importance. Those fleeing Syria, be they Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Christian Arabs, Muslim Kurds or Syrian Palestinians, naturally find shelter within their community on the other side of the border. With numbers growing, their mere presence can become a trigger provoking dormant tensions. Moreover, camps and informal settlements sheltering the refugees might easily become hotbeds for terrorist organizations.

At the moment; the pressure on Lebanese society is tremendous: one in five people is a refugee, giving Lebanon more refugees per capita than any other country in the world.

The refugees are spread out among the population and they put pressure on local education services, health services, on agricultural land as the ITS’s now cover the once fertile ground, besides causing further strain to water resources, pressure is also on rents of apartments and on the price of food, furthermore, refugees have no access to jobs and are spread out in areas within vulnerable host communities, suffering from historic poverty and negligence.

A road map for Lebanon has been established: The Lebanese Crisis Response Plan; a joint Government – UN, integrated plan to ensure that the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis tangibly benefits Lebanon and helps to stabilize the country.

This very important document does not address the role of donor countries in the global humanitarian response.

The way it works is that the EU and other donors provide funding to the UN and other INGOs who then oversee its disbursement. The process is quite complicated and has good people working on it.
Rather than interfere with it, or detract from its funding, the EU should also pursue alternative and parallel initiatives to empower local communities, municipalities, and universities both in Europe and in host countries to cooperate with each other in responding to the crisis.

Even as some Europeans worry about the influx of refugees, the numbers are clear: Europe, a continent of 500 million people, has so far received 850,000 refugees since 2012. That’s not even a 0.2 percent increase in the population. Europe must consider sharing the burden more effectively with Syria’s neighboring host countries.

What burden should be shared? Should Europe accept more refugees or pay more money to keep them outside its borders? I personally believe both! Moreover Europe must open the door wider to Syrian refugees for the sake of its defining values, among which is the right to asylum.
As Europe leads in humanitarian efforts, it should also be leading the political efforts to end the conflict.

The irony is that the most powerful countries, those that accept the least number of refugees, are the ones deciding the sad fate of the Syrian people.

Without resolving the root cause of the crisis – the Syrian civil war – no amount of funding or successful resettlement policies will help Syria’s neighbors, as we can no longer bear the strain on our economy, infrastructure and society.