UNHCR to End Hospital Coverage for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Due to Funding Cuts
Lebanon’s Health Minister urges international donors to uphold healthcare support for Syrian refugees as UNHCR announces funding halt starting November.
Watan-A delegation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), led by the organization’s representative in Lebanon, Ivo Freijsen, informed Lebanese Minister of Public Health Rakan Nasser Al-Din on Wednesday of the agency’s decision to halt hospital coverage for Syrian refugees in Lebanon starting November. The UNHCR will also cease support to various primary healthcare centers due to “limited funding from donor countries.”
In response, Minister Nasser Al-Din emphasized that “there is no solution except through securing international funding for healthcare and hospitalization of the refugees until their safe return to their homeland,” urging serious efforts to begin implementing a return plan in light of changed conditions in Syria.
The health minister pointed out that Lebanon witnessed “a new wave of displacement less than three months ago, keeping refugee numbers extremely high in relation to Lebanon’s limited geographic size and its already strained health system.”
He stressed that “the international community must not shirk its humanitarian responsibilities—responsibilities that Lebanon has not neglected toward non-citizens residing on its soil over the past 14 years, despite its ongoing financial, economic, and security crises.”
Nasser Al-Din concluded by calling on the UNHCR, in coordination with key international stakeholders, to find ways to restore hospital coverage and continue supporting health services for refugees in primary care centers.
