UNHCR: 779,000 Syrians Taking Refuge in Lebanon

The United Nations’ refugee agency announced on Saturday that the number of Syrians who have fled their war-torn country and came to Lebanon has reached 779,000.

“13,000 new refugees were registered during this week,” the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said in a released statement.

It elaborated: “And by this, the number of Syrians receiving aid in Lebanon from the UNHCR and its partners has reached 779,000. 678100 of them are officially registered while 101000 are awaiting to be enlisted.”

According to the statement, 217,200 refugees reside in northern Lebanon, 226,600 are in the Bekaa, 144,000 are spread between Beirut and Mount Lebanon while 90,000 are living in South Lebanon.

Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abou Faour had said from Geneva that Lebanon counted by Monday evening some 769,000 Syrians registered or in the process of registering as refugees, pointing out that on Monday morning the number had been 763,000.

Including all the unregistered Syrians, the actual number is around 1.3 million, he said, or about 30 percent of the Lebanese population.

Lebanon's ambassador to the U.N. Nawaf Salam reiterated earlier on Saturday calls on the international community to share the burden created by the exodus of Syrian refugees into Lebanon.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim warned recently that Lebanon is heading towards a “disaster” over the alarming influx of Syrian refugees into its territories.

An international meeting in New York recently announced $339 million in additional humanitarian aid in response to the Syria crisis, including $74 million for Lebanon to support Syrian refugees that stood at 914,000, or nearly 21 percent of the country's population according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.