Category Archives: Middle East Conflict

March 28, 2012 · 12:41 PM

Caritas Jordan aiding Syrian refugees while Pope pledges Caritas Syria Easter donation

Caritas Jordan is providing aid to Syrian refugees fleeing conflict. Photo by Caritas Jordan

Refugees continue to flee conflict in Syria to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Meanwhile, the Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict’s Holy Thursday Mass collection in St. John’s basilica will go  to Caritas Syria for humanitarian assistance to Syrian’s forced from their homes because of the conflict.

In the latest update from Caritas Jordan, staff say the number of registered Syrians with them has reached 900 families in Mafraq and Ramtha, comprising 4500-5000 individuals. About 20 individuals are registering daily with Caritas; some are legally staying in Jordan while others managed to jump over the fence and got into the Jordanian territories that way.

After carrying out a distribution of household items in Ramtha and Mafraq two weeks ago, Caritas managed in the past three days to distribute blankets, heaters, bed linens, quilts, towels, plastic mats, sanitary pads, mattresses and jerry cans to 200 Syrian families in Mafraq. This batch targeted newly registered families with UNHCR in addition to single males and females.

Caritas is expecting to receive more relief quantities as its partner Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) pledged to transport two shipping containers laden of food and non-food items. The distribution is taking place inside the Catholic Church vicinity as the priest has allocated one of the halls to place these items and receive the beneficiaries. The UN refugee agency UNHCR is presented there on a weekly basis to fulfill the needs of registration of families who are to receive these items. Continue reading →

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March 23, 2012 · 10:22 AM

Caritas in Lebanon and Jordan doing more to help Syrian refugees

Conditions are difficult for Syrian refugees, water covers the floors of basic appartments, employment is not permitted and there is a lack of basics like nappies and other personal hygiene equipment.
Photos by Patrick Nicholson/Caritas. Photos by Patrick Nicholson/Caritas

By Patrick Nicholson

Syrian refugees continue to flee into neighbouring Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. They’re trying to escape fighting between government and opposition forces that began last March. Caritas members in the region are looking to respond to the growing needs of the refugees.

Living conditions are difficult. Hamid* brought his wife and children from Tal Kalakh in Syria to Wadi Khaled just across the border in northern Lebanon as soon as fighting started in March 2011. He said he feared that the situation would go from “bad to very bad” because of sectarianism and thought it safer to leave while he could.

His family of six have lived for six months in one of the rooms of an old abandoned school building. Fifteen families live in the school. The rooms are tiny, damp and cold. His wife couldn’t cope so she went home at one point. “I would have preferred to die in Syria than live like this,” she said. She returned because she missed her children.

They have a three-month-old baby. The family receive food and medical help, but they need money for nappies and milk. Hamid is resigned to his fate. He will not go back until the situation in Syria changes, but he doesn’t hold out hope of a fast solution. Continue reading →

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March 16, 2012 · 10:03 AM

Caritas aid reaches Syrian refugees in Lebanon


By Patrick Nicholson

“The situation is bad,” said Fatima*. She had arrived from Syria into Lebanon that morning with five of her seven children. They’d fled from Kosayr, a suburb of Homs that’s currently undergoing heavy shelling as fighting continues between the government and opposition forces.

Her husband stayed on while her teenage boys were stopped from leaving. She and the rest of the children had walked two hours across the border. They’re staying in a bare concrete storeroom, normally used for farm equipment.

The refugees brought nothing with them. Snow still covers the mountains of the Bekaa Valley. It’s cold and windy in the remote rural border area. There are two mats on the floor of the room and a crate of empty cola bottles. There is no heating.

Caritas Lebanon is carrying out an aid distribution in Bekaa and gives them a box of food, with pasta, rice, oil and other bare essentials. It should last at least a month. Continue reading →

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April 8, 2011 · 12:19 PM

Migrants blocked in camps at Libyan borders eager to go home


Available in French

Migrant workers gathering around the Caritas information tent at the Shousha Camp.

Danielle Leblanc from Secours Catholique –Caritas France reports from the programme Caritas has set up at the Tunisian-Libyan border to help stranded migrants fleeing the conflict in Libya in their repatriation process.

Shousha Camp, Ras Ajdir, close to the Tunisian-Libyan border

They are there every morning and until late in the afternoon, surrounding our information tent. The three cultural mediators from Caritas Bangladesh and its partner OKUP always have a lot of work. When is the next flight? When can we go back home? That is the only thing the migrants really want to know. Continue reading →

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March 23, 2011 · 3:31 PM

The story of Samer and Maryam, Palestinian migrants fleeing from Libya

Samer Salloum at the Salloum border camp. Credit: Caritas Switzerland

By Fred Lauener, Caritas Switzerland, reporting from the Egyptian-Libyan border, where Caritas is distributing emergency aid to migrants fleeing the unrests in Libya.

Read the original blog in German

70-year-old Samer is Palestinian. The Gaza strip is his home, but he has lived and worked in Libya for 36 years. His two sons and his daughter grew up in Libya and are grown-up. His wife passed away. Continue reading →

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· 11:02 AM

Massive departures at the Salloum border camp

Buses to transport people out of Salloum. Credit: Caritas Switzerland

By Fred Lauener, Caritas Switzerland, reporting from the Egyptian-Libyan border, where Caritas is distributing emergency aid to migrants fleeing the unrests in Libya.

Read the original blog in German

Yesterday, a lot of people had to pack their stuff at the Salloum border camp. Salloum looked like a crowded, badly-organised coach station. Dozens of buses were obstructing the access to the camp. There has been a lot of movement here in the last days. A lot of people could finally leave.

Among them were many of the young men from Chad who were by far the biggest group in the camp. A lot of them had come to Salloum not only because they had lost their jobs but most of all because they were fearing for their lives. Young black Africans are under general suspicion as Gaddafi mercenaries. Continue reading →

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March 18, 2011 · 1:40 PM

Growing tension among migrants in the Salloum border camp

Credits: Fred Lauener/Caritas Switzerland

Fred Lauener from Caritas Switzerland arrived in Salloum on the Libyan-Egyptian border on Thursday to support the ongoing Caritas emergency aid distributions for migrants fleeing the violence in Libya.  Here are some of his accounts from the last days. (Read his original blogs in German)

“Today, there have hardly been any migrants arriving at the border in Salloum. Maybe that is a consequence of the no-flight zone that was decided yesterday. We don’t know yet. The tension among the Chadian migrant workers however, who have been stuck here for up to two weeks, is growing. Some of them have been on hunger strike and refusing liquids since this morning. Another group armed itself with sticks and demanded to speak to embassy representatives. They want to go home! We are trying to calm down the situation.

“Yesterday, I travelled to Salloum from Kairo. The trip by bus and taxi took me about eleven hours. I came to Salloum to join colleagues from CRS ( a Caritas member) and help them with emergency food distributions. I was told that in the previous days, a few hundred Libyan families and Egyptian migrant workers were passing the border every day, but that there were only around a dozen people from other nationalities. These last can’t enter Egypt since they don’t have a visa and so they are stuck at the border camp in Salloum and need to be taken care of until they can leave. At the moment, around 3000 people are receiving food, hygiene articles and medical care in Salloum. Continue reading →

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