A refugee is a person who is outside their home country because they have suffered (or feared) persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion; because they are a member of a persecuted social category of persons; or because they are fleeing a war.
Refugees face several issues while in the country of asylum, in Lebanon and since the government didn’t sign the Geneva convention of 1951, refugees are subject to several protection concerns such as detention, no official documents, difficulties to find jobs.
Due to conflict that started in 2011 in Syria, almost 1.500.000 Syrian refugees are currently in Lebanon. Iraqi refugees were in the country since 1997, their number increased when Saddam Hussein’s regime felt down in 2003 and recently with the attacks of ISIS, more than 1.000 families fled to Lebanon seeking security.
Refugees search for asylum in Lebanon for many reasons; for Syrian, Lebanon is the only country that accepted to receive them without restrictions, although recently the government has put more new regulations reduce the influx, it remains the country that provided them safety. For other nationalities, namely Iraqis Lebanon is considered a transit country before moving through resettlement to a third country where they can build their future.
MCD through its programs in Lebanon is targeting Syrian refugees, Iraqi, Sudanese or any other person who was obliged to leave its country seeking security and safety.
