Syrian Refugees Cannot Return– 'Anyone Who Goes Back, Dies'
Ben Gilbert reports that most of the refugees in Lebanon's northern Wadi Khaled region haven't been home in a year. They stay in order to avoid attacks, detention or military service. The few recent arrivals have had to bribe Syrian Army soldiers to cross the now nearly impenetrable border in this area.
As the battle for the future of Syria rages, the grainy Youtube videos of shelled cities and broken bodies, the sound of gunfire and the sight of armed men behind sandbags have become all too familiar.
So too has the struggle of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“There are 20,000 of us in northern Lebanon,” says Ali al-Kurdi, a refugee who works with the Syrian Local Coordinating Committees to support other refugees.
Lebanese aid workers in the area say that around 5,000 of those refugees have settled in the Wadi Khaled border area, living in converted elementary schools and rooms in private homes. They rely on charity for food, medical care and education for their children. Many have been here for over a year.
