BEIRUT — As Lebanon struggles to cope with the aftermath of the deadly Aug. 4 port explosion and a long-crippled economy, hundreds of thousands of people are sinking deeper than ever before. And with no signs of an international bailout, no effective political strategy in sight and a staggering rise in COVID-19 cases, many of the nearly 2 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees — large numbers of whom are unregistered — are among the most vulnerable casualties of Lebanon's state of demise. 

“If 1,000 people die right now, nobody cares. Governments only think about business and their own benefits — we are just cards they play, we are just numbers,” said Dr. Fares Alghadban, 35, a Syrian refugee who for nearly three years was the only physician in his war-ravaged town of Zabadani in the suburbs of Damascus.

Alghadban spoke with Al-Monitor in Beirut about how he surreptitiously escaped to Lebanon in 2017 after the Syrian regime accused him of supporting and tending to rebels. “You cannot imagine what it was like. So many of my friends and family members died — some in front of my eyes. I am a family doctor, but I did surgery, I delivered babies, I did everything I could for everyone. I wanted to help everyone.”

When he first arrived in Lebanon, he, like most Syrian refugees, didn’t have legal residency or permission to work. For the first year, he worked at a vegetable market to make ends meet for his family of five. And while he still can’t legally work as a physician in Lebanon, with the support of a British friend and fellow physician, the doctor has established a charity mobile medical clinic that drives around Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and supports the various needs of not just Syrian refugees but the vulnerable Lebanese community.