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STORY: GENEVA / LEBANON SYRIAN REFUGEES
TRT: 2:30
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 JULY 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ross Mountain, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon:
“Lebanon despite enormous pressure on it, and Lebanon at the moment has the highest proportion of refugees of any country in the world, is in danger of facing increasing tension, and is in danger of seeing this worsen, but for the time being it is still holding.”
3. Close up, reporter
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ross Mountain, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon:
“The situation in Lebanon is not just about refugees, when you have 50,000 or 100,000 refugees in a country it is a refugee emergency, when you have a quarter of the population of the country now rising one third estimated by the end of this year, the population of the country it is a national calamity. And at the moment we are facing funding in Lebanon of 29 percent when over 50 percent of the year has passed.”
5. Med shot, pan up journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ross Mountain, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon:
“Lebanon has gone through a civil war some 25 years ago, the region does not need another country in that circumstance, if, if in our business it’s important to talk about early warning, it’s not early, but I’m warning.”
7. Wide shot, presser
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ross Mountain, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon:
“ I come from New Zealand there are a million, it’s the equivalent to a million people coming into New Zealand in 18 months, that would completely blow it off its…80 million or 100 million Mexicans going into the United States, Two and a half million coming into Switzerland in 18 months, the proportions are just extraordinary, and I don’t know any other country that could withstand this pressure and the numbers keep coming.”
9. Wide shot, presser
The number of Syrian refugees arriving in Lebanon is on the increase, stretching local resources to what that UN has described as a "national calamity."
The number of refugees fleeing from Syria into Lebanon surpassed one million in April and is estimated to reach 1.5 million by the end of the year.
United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon Ross Mountain says Syrian refugees in the country now make up 25 percent of the Lebanese population, a situation that is exerting unprecedented pressure on public services and communities hosting the refugees.
Speaking in Geneva today (14 July), Mountain said “the proportions are just extraordinary, and I don’t know any other country that could withstand this pressure and the numbers keep coming.”
He warned that Lebanon is not in a position to support the Syrian refugees without substantial international help.
Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees in relation to its national population, with 178 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants.
He also said “I come from New Zealand there are a million, it’s the equivalent to a million people coming into New Zealand in 18 months, that would completely blow it off its…80 million or 100 million Mexicans going into the United States, Two and a half million coming into Switzerland in 18 months, the proportions are just extraordinary, and I don’t know any other country that could withstand this pressure and the numbers keep coming.”
