Syrian refugees arrive at a Jordan border town (archive)
(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) distributed material for reinforcing tents, as well as blankets and heaters, to 120,000 Syrian refugees living in precarious conditions in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, caught in the grips of heavy snowfall over the last few days.
A weather system called Alexa hit the Middle East on Tuesday evening and has brought with it serious difficulties for the 2.3 million Syrian refugees spread out across Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, not to mention the nearly six million evacuees within Syria. According to sources cited by French news agency AFP, two children in Syria died yesterday from the cold.
Lebanon hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees abroad at 838,000; 120,000 of whom live in tents in makeshift refugee camps not officially recognized by authorities.
Serious hardships as a result of the cold were reported in Turkey as well. On Wednesday, UNHCR teams were unable to reach refugee camps around Kills due to snow blocking the roads. (ANSAmed).
