(Zaman Al Wasl)- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon has suspended food rations and aid for 2,000 Syrian families lives in border Arsal camps, a camp principal told Zaman al-Wasl Sunday.
The UNHCR, via text message, has informed the families that they are no more eligible to receive assistance from the World Food Programme due to lack of funds.
The aid suspension came as winter approaches; such a procedure will mount the refugees suffering, activists say.
Displaced Syrian families receive 260,000 Lebanese pounds ($173.5) per month, in addition to the subsidies provided by the World Food Programme, according to the Middle East Monitor.
The Mediterranean country of around 4.5 million people says it hosts some 1.5 million Syrians, of which nearly a million are UN-registered refugees.
Lebanese politicians routinely blame the country's economic and other woes on Syrian refugees and the government has ratcheted up the pressure to send them back.
Rights groups have decried measures to make the lives of refugees increasingly difficult.
Since June, more than 3,600 Syrian families have seen their shelters demolished in the eastern region of Arsal, according to local authorities.
Homes made of anything other than timber and plastic sheeting are not allowed.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighboring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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