A refugee camp in Lebanon is completely evacuated after a fire
A clash between a Lebanese and a Syrian family has caused a fire in the refugee camp in the northern Lebanese town of Miniyeh. The camp was completely destroyed and nearly 80 families were evacuated.
A total of 370 people had to be relocated, many of whom were taken in by Syrian families in the area, according to the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Khaled Kabbara. The head of the UNHCR has also indicated that the reconstruction of the camp will take place as soon as possible.
The Lebanese news agency ANN, reported that the fire left, in addition to the destruction of the camp and the loss of belongings, 3 injured. The Lebanese Army has announced the arrest of 8 persons of Lebanese and Syrian nationality for the fighting and the damage caused. During the arrest, weapons and military equipment were seized.
Such hostilities against Syrian refugees have occurred on more than one occasion. Last month almost 300 families were forced to leave the town of Bcharee, also in the north of the country, because of reprisals for a crime carried out by a refugee.
Nearly 900,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Lebanon, the country with the highest number of refugees per inhabitant, though the total figure according to the Lebanese authorities is as high as one and a half million. The Syrian conflict has left more than five and a half million refugees, a figure which, although reduced, continues to make the Syrian community the second largest in terms of refugees, after Venezuela, which has six million.
In this connection, the Syrian foreign ministry has asked the Lebanese authorities to protect their nationals in the country, though it has likewise invited the refugees to return as Damascus' control of Syrian territory has progressed.
Lebanon, a country of scarcely six million inhabitants, also has a large community of Palestinian refugees. According to the UNHCR, the number of those registered in the country is over half a million.
