WFP’s Syria voucher plan suspension raises fears in Lebanon

The World Food Program (WFP)’s suspension of a food voucher plan for nearly two million refugees from Syria in neighboring countries has raised concerns of a crisis in Lebanon, Press TV reports.

The decision threatens to leave more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees, including 1.1 million in Lebanon alone, without food.

The WFP said the plan was halted as a result of a lack of funds and donors.

“The World Food Program was forced to take this decision because of the lack and the absence of any funding. In Lebanon, 900,000 Syrian refugees will not receive any food assistance,” WFP Public Information Officer Sandy Maoun said.

The UN agency says that it needs USD 64 million to support the Syrian refugees in December only.

A Syrian refugee in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, said, “There is no help anyway. They only give us about 26 dollars a month and that only buys us bread. So, if they cut the funds, what does that leave us with? We are betrayed by the world. We have no human rights.”

Another Syrian refugee in Lebanon said that the suspension of the plan would give them no choice but to “either beg” or “die”.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. More than 200,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict in Syria, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein.

The violence has left hundreds of thousands displaced, with many fleeing to Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon.