Gordon Brown pleas for help with refugee crisis in Lebanon
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown said Syrian refugees have overwhelmed Lebanese public schools, and asked the world for more support.
Estimates suggest that more than 400,000 children from neighbouring Syria need schooling in Lebanon – nearly twice the number of Lebanese children in school.
CNN: 'I broke down': Salma Hayek on visit to refugee camp: http://t.co/MO9XZdLl1m #childrenofsyria #refugees #syria #lebanon
— Tara Rae Moss (@Tara_Moss) May 24, 2015
Mr Brown, now a UN special education envoy, spoke during a visit to Lebanon, where he is trying to help the country of 4.5 million people raise money to deal with what he said were “great” pressures on its public services, including education.
Nearly 1.2 million Syrian refugees are registered in Lebanon, though the real number is believed to be much higher. Of that number, nearly 500,000 are children, according to the UN children’s agency.
I'm frankly ashamed that #Britain has taken in just 187 #Syria refugees. Tiny #Lebanon is hosting 1.2 million. http://t.co/6rO8nMa8ew
— Sara Hussein (@sarahussein) May 26, 2015
“Lebanon has had to bear pressures that no country should ever be asked to have to bear,” Mr Brown told reporters in Beirut.
There are nearly four million Syrian refugees around the region, with 1.7 million registered in Turkey, a country with nearly 75 million people. But in terms of percentage, Lebanon is enduring the most.
The tiny Middle East country, with simmering sectarian tensions from its own 15-year-old civil war that ended in 1990, has so far escaped a major spillover from Syria’s conflict, although sporadic violence has erupted several times.
Mr Brown said he will help Lebanon’s government raise 100 million dollars (£65 million) before the August start of the school year to help with the enrolment of Syrian refugee children.
So far, 106,000 Syrian children have swelled the more than 150 Lebanese public schools, forcing many to introduce double shifts.
Luciano Calestini, Unicef’s deputy representative in Lebanon, said the number was up from 91,000 Syrians in Lebanese schools last year.
Lebanese education minister Elias Bou Saab said more than 400,000 Syrian children need schooling, nearly twice the total number of Lebanese students.
The influx has changed school demographics. Some schools have 90% Syrian students, Mr Saab said, adding that Lebanese children are increasingly leaving the public system for private schools.
