Despite considerable efforts been made to improve the wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers in Lebanon, significant gaps remain in addressing pressing protection and assistance needs. According to the 2016 VARON report, an estimated 68 per cent of the refugees from nationalities other than Syria were recognized as vulnerable, as their income was not enough to meet the basic needs of their households. Limited resources were available to address these increasing vulnerabilities amongst this population group. As such, not all protection risks could be addressed and interventions needed to be rigorously prioritized. As highlighted above and detailed throughout this document, funding limitations hampered the achievement of the following objectives:
- Services for Persons with Specific Needs strengthened: This objective was underfunded by 62 per cent in 2016.The demand for case management continued to increase and the need for assistance and specialized services has been far greater than the available funding.
- Access to legal assistance and legal remedies improved: Legal assistance provided to beneficiaries was 56 per cent underfunded in 2016. Despite UNHCR’s advocacy, refugees need as much as $1,200 to legalize their stay, including refugees without durable solution opportunities. This has placed individuals in a precarious legal situation, exposing them to a risk of refoulement, making them anxious about movement, and unable to find work opportunities.
- Health status of the population improved: Access to PHC services was underfunded by 50 per cent in 2016. A limited network of PHCCs means that refugees living in areas where there are unsupported PHCCs do not benefit from subsidized rates and face higher out-of-pocket expenses for consultations. In addition, limited coverage for diagnostic tests and laboratory examinations results in people choosing not to undergo important diagnostic procedures. Secondary Health Care (SHC) is strictly prioritized due to funding shortfalls. Many SHC treatments, including for cancer, organ transplants, renal failure, and blood diseases, are not covered under the UNHCR’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). For SHC treatments that are included in UNHCR’s SOPs, hospital bills are only covered at 75-90 per cent, leaving refugees to provide for the remaining portion of the bill. Despite UNHCR’s contributions, many refugees still find it difficult to cover the remaining costs of hospitalizations. For the services that are not covered by UNHCR, hospitals have been requesting patients to pay a deposit upon admission. Many PoCs struggle to cover these costs and hence are unable to access healthcare services that are not subsidized by UNHCR, particularly for chronic medical treatment. 4-Population has sufficient and basic domestic items: Due to a funding shortfall, UNHCR was only able to assist 23 per cent of severely vulnerable non-Syrian households with MCAP. Refugee families hence have sunk further into debt, often approaching UNHCR after being evicted from living arrangements due to unpaid rent, and were forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms, including child labor, withdrawing children from school, and survival sex. A large proportion of the needs remain unmet in view of the scale of humanitarian requirements. The impact is significant, as the resilience and coping mechanisms of refugees have been substantially drained. Many families have exhausted their resources and social infrastructure is either critically overstretched or non-existent. In addition to the concerns this raises on an individual and family level, the context may result in tensions between various communities as refugees and host communities compete over limited and stretched resources.