In a canvas camp in the Bekaa plain in eastern Lebanon, Ibrahim al-Korbaw peels garlic cloves with his children, a meager source of income for this refugee, with no hope of returning to Syria and no prospects of future.

“One of my sons complains that his hands are turning blue from hard work. But I tell him that he must continue to be able to put bread on the table,” says the father of six children.

The former construction worker is 48 years old but with his white beard he looks twenty years older. He fled the Syrian city of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed former “capital” of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), about ten years ago.

Today the guns have fallen silent and the Lebanese government is calling for Syrian refugees to return to their country.

Mr. Korbaw says he cannot return to Syria because his house is destroyed and he fears above all reprisals from the regime, forced conscription or being left without any means of subsistence.

“My children cannot be safe in a country where we are not treated as human beings,” he protests, sweat beading on his brow.

But in Lebanon, nine out of ten Syrian refugees live in poverty despite meager aid from the UN.

Humanitarian organizations have launched new calls to help the Syrian people in Syria and abroad as a fundraising conference is held in Brussels.

According to Beirut, nearly two million Syrians are refugees in Lebanon. The UN says 830,000 are registered with its services.

In recent months, the Lebanese army has arrested and expelled Syrians in an irregular situation, at a time of heightened anti-Syrian sentiment in the country hit by a very serious economic crisis.

Mr. Korbaw says he has rarely left the camp for nearly two years, for fear of being arrested and deported to Syria, where he risks being tortured and persecuted according to human rights organizations.

“I prefer to die in front of my children,” he says. “At least they will be certain that I am dead”.

The civil war that erupted in Syria in 2011 claimed an estimated half a million lives, and almost half of Syrians are now refugees or internally displaced.

Ibrahim al-Korbaw’s sister Souad, 34, has also lost hope of a return. “I feel like I’m going to live the rest of my life in this tent,” she breathes.

After fleeing the brutality of IS, she lost her 12-year-old son in Lebanon, run over by a tractor while picking potatoes.

With his five other brothers and sisters, he had to leave school to work.

“I feel like all the doors have closed, that I’ll never have a decent life again,” Souad says, in a tent with cushions as the only furniture.

When her husband returned to Syria to bury their son, he found that their house had been destroyed by shelling and looted.

Madaniya al-Khalaf, 35, said she lost meager UN aid due to budget cuts and could no longer afford diapers for her six-month-old baby. She now uses plastic bags and rags instead of diapers.

To make ends meet, the mother of four says she had to beg money from camp residents and her young children to collect plastic and metal from garbage to sell.

In a nearby camp, Ghofrane al-Jassem, 30, from Syria’s Idlib region, sees “no future” for her four children in Lebanon.

Two of his sons were born with heart failure. One of them, now seven years old, needs an urgent transplant.

The income of her husband, a seasonal agricultural worker, barely suffices for the immediate needs of the family, which has not received any aid from the UN since November.

“I see my children die in front of me,” she sobbed. “If I return to Syria, I will lose my children — after the collapse of the health system — but also my husband who will have to serve in the army.”

“In both cases I lose, so might as well stay”.

6/15/2023 05:12:13 –