TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Yahya was trapped in his hometown for two years by Syria’s civil war, moving from house to house to avoid shells and bullets. His father was killed by a sniper. His family fled to another town that came under a fierce government offensive.
When the teenager finally made it out of the country with his mother and two sisters, he became the latest sad statistic of the sectarian conflict: the 1 millionth refugee to register in Lebanon.
The United Nations’ refugee agency, which invited reporters to witness Yahya’s registration and allowed them to interview the 19-year-old, described the 1 million figure as a “devastating milestone” for Lebanon.
There are many more Syrians inside Lebanon than those officially registered, with the Lebanese government itself estimating that at least a half-million are unregistered.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says it is registering an average of more than one refugee a minute in Lebanon, a country of 4.5 million that is seeing its resources strained by the new arrivals.
“I feel sad because this means that 1 million fled here before me to suffer together,” Yahya said as he waited to register with the UNHCR in the northern city of Tripoli. “A million is a big number for Syria and a big number for Lebanon.”
Yahya asked to be identified only by his first name because he feared that Syrian authorities would retaliate against his relatives who are still there.
Yahya told a harrowing story of how his family became caught up in the violence between troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking his ouster. Their house in the central city of Homs was on the front line of the conflict that began in March 2011, forcing them out.
They moved frequently for their safety, Yahya said, but his father was shot to death by a sniper in September of that year.
They were evacuated from Homs this year by the U.N., and traveled to Yabroud, a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border that soon came under government attack.
On March 8, the family crossed into Lebanon, first looking for shelter for a few days in the overcrowded border town of Arsal. They moved farther west to an informal settlement outside Tripoli.
The conflict in Syria, which had a population of 23 million before the civil war, has killed more than 150,000 people.
The U.N. estimates there are more than 2.5 million Syrians registered in neighboring countries — nearly 670,000 in Turkey, nearly 590,000 in Jordan and about 220,000 in Iraq. More than 47,700 are awaiting registration.
Lebanon has the highest per-capita concentration of refugees recorded anywhere in the world in recent history, the UNHCR said.
2,500New Syrian refugees daily in Lebanon — more than one person per minute$2.5 billionLost economic activity in Lebanon last year due to the Syrian crisis
