FINE TUNING REFUGEE ASSISTANCE IN LEBANON, SYRIA

UNCLAS AMMAN 000458 SENSITIVE SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID IZ JO LE PREF SY SUBJECT: FINE TUNING REFUGEE ASSISTANCE IN LEBANON, SYRIA AND JORDAN ¶1. (SBU) Summary: To keep pace with the most recent information about Iraqi refugees, PRM refugee assistance in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan should be fine tuned to address specific vulnerabilities in the Iraqi population in the three countries. Advanced health care for the chronically ill, post-secondary education opportunities for the adolescent Iraqi population, psychosocial programming to offset the effects of extended refugee status, and well-monitored monetary assistance would best promote the USG goal of repatriating Iraqis with dignity and in security. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) UNHCR in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan estimate that at the end of 2008, there were 257,132 registered Iraqi refugees in the three countries. Government numbers of Iraqis in the region far exceed registration numbers. However, those registered should serve as a model for assistance. Iraqis showed a higher incidence of chronic illness than did the host country populations, with 40,795 chronically ill in Syria alone. In Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, UNHCR and UNICEF judged that approximately 12,000 of the school aged Iraqis were at risk of economic exploitation as they illegally seek work in economies where consumer prices increased by 14 percent over 2007. In addition this group is vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Consequently, their medical, psychosocial and humanitarian assistance needs have changed over the past year. HEALTH CARE--BEYOND PRIMARY HEALTH CARE -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Medical professionals in all three countries report that Iraqis present a higher incidence of cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease than the host country nationals. Iraqi children are especially hard hit by chronic illness requiring medicine and therapies either not available or prohibitively expensive in the region. These patients require monitoring and long-term care which is beyond the current resources of local hospitals and PRM partners. RECOMMENDATION: Current health programming in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan provide Iraqis with basic health care and limited, short-term access to more demanding, expensive care. PRM should explore with IOs and NGOs extended care programs for critically ill Iraqis in countries of refuge. A corresponding increase in services inside Iraqi could prevent chronic health care from becoming a pull factor in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. ¶4. (SBU) Mental health partners note an increase in reports of domestic violence and in requests for psychosocial supports such as peer counseling and mental health consultations among refugees. Community workers link the increase in violence to economic difficulties and a resulting loss of identity suffered by family members. The 2009 Iraqi CAP contained approximately USD 19.3 million in proposed psychosocial programming. RECOMMEDATION: Successful PRM psychosocial interventions in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan were geared to providing safe spaces for vulnerable women and children and basic counseling services. Those efforts should be coupled with a whole family/community approach to psychosocial work to address the effect of displacement and hopelessness among the adult and adolescent male population--authors of much of the violence. In Lebanon single males are the largest demographic group among Iraqis. The psychosocial needs of this group, many of them war survivors, should be addressed to ease their reintegration into Iraqi upon repatriation. Partners like Relief International, International Medical Corps, and Mercy Corps made early progress in this field in all three hosting countries and could do more. EDUCATION--REACHING ENDANGERED YOUTH -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Iraqi students in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan have access to free or inexpensive primary education. School attendance numbers in secondary education programs drop off sharply as young people seek jobs, prepare for resettlement, or lose interest in education that does not prepare them for an uncertain future. Attracting students to secondary education presents a challenge in all three countries. Education partners report that employment as laborers on the gray and black markets is a major cause of teenage absenteeism from schools, particularly as Iraqi refugees consider young people as potentially less likely to be picked up by host country authorities for working illegally. Separately, the potential for exploitation of adolescent dropouts is great. RECOMMENDATION: Education partners should be encouraged to consider programming to support post secondary education in either vocational schools or universities in the region. Early versions of the 2009 Iraq pillar II CAP listed approximately USD 55 million in non-primary education program proposals for Iraqis in the Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and approximately USD 3.7 million would directly address the needs of youth. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR THE BASICS -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In all the countries in the region worsening economic conditions have impoverished refugees, even those who were middle-class when they first sought refuge. Presently, assistance is not based on needs assessments informed by an economic survey of local conditions. UNHCR and WFP are using international standards for humanitarian assistance and applying them to estimations of population size without the benefit of accurate, independent numbers. In Syria, food assistance proved vulnerable to misappropriation and sale. Present levels of cash assistance in the region are insufficient to meet local costs in countries such as Jordan which has seen a 14 percent increase in consumer prices in the last year. Syria and Lebanon registered similar hikes in the cost of basic consumer goods and rents. Embassies continue to press Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to grant Iraqis legal status and the right to work legally. Governments resist on the basis of economic hardships among host communities, which have long accommodated large numbers of Palestinian refugees, and the principle that Iraqis are not seen locally as de jure refugees. Political leaders in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have increasing shown a willingness to discuss the economic welfare of the Iraqis in their countries. However, national policies allowing Iraqis to work remain restrictive and anecdotal evidence suggests that refugees are falling into poverty at a rapid rate. In Syria and Jordan, Iraqis cannot seek legal employment. In Lebanon, Iraqis can work under limited circumstances. ¶7. (SBU) UNHCR and partners are working with a mixed bag of cash/voucher/food assistance programs with WFP and other partners. The most successful, but time intensive of the programs is cash assistance, which should be expanded. Private donors have used food vouchers successfully in Lebanon and Jordan. Controlling the distribution of cash and vouchers is much more demanding than monitoring food distributions, but the advantages of cash distribution to an urban population are considerable. Refugees receive assistance through a system of bank ATMs that record transactions and allow refugees the dignity of withdrawing funds in a way that does not mark them as refugees. Cash and vouchers allow refugees to use the local economy and eliminate the need for importation, storage and safeguarding of bulk food. As demonstrated in Syria in 2008, distributing large quantities of bulk food invites refugees to sell their rations at dumping prices, angering local merchants and putting refugees on the wrong side of the law. RECOMENDATION: UNHCR and WFP should be encouraged to work together to establish innovative solutions to nutritional assistance that include cash distribution systems on a regional basis to prevent refugees from "benefit shopping". Anti-fraud technology could be used to prevent the abuse of vouchers or cards, such as frequent renewal requirements and issuance of picture imprinted cards. ¶8. (SBU) Access to fair employment could reduce refugee dependence on assistance. Partners have been successful in working with paid Iraqi volunteers in professional and semi-professional aspects of programming. Iraqi doctors work in health clinics in Jordan and Lebanon. Iraqi volunteers conduct surveys for NGOs throughout the region. Governments have proven tolerant of the practice of paying volunteers for their long-term service to NGOs. RECOMMENDATION: Partners should be encouraged to recruit and retain qualified Iraqis for positions within USG funded and other assistance programs. Volunteerism is not proposed as a solution to the right-to-work problem, but employing volunteers is a limited stop-gap solution for a handful of educated beneficiaries. REPATRIATION--PREPARING THE ROAD HOME -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Future USG assistance efforts in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan should focus on preparing for repatriation while securing humanitarian space for Iraqis. RECOMMENDATION: UNHCR should be encouraged to seek blanket Iraqi Government recognition of the academic and occupational training credentials of Iraqis who studied in countries of refuge. Advanced occupational classes conducted by NGOs in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon should be accredited by the Government of Iraq to reassure refugees that their credentials have worth once they return home. Supporting higher education for Iraqis in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan could offer a possible future to Iraqi youth who would otherwise fall prey to predatory employers or worse. Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman Beecroft