BEIRUT (Reuters) - Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Arab states to help Lebanon cope with a flood of Syrian refugees who are stretching its scarce resources and will need at least $370 million in support this year.
Mikati said hospitals were full of Syrians, the sick and wounded from the civil war next door, and doctors were struggling to prevent outbreaks of disease among 340,000 refugees crammed into host communities around the country.
Lebanon also faces rising crime - he said 700 Syrians were caught breaking the law in January, a high figure in a country of 4 million - and the influx of refugees into Lebanese homes had brought with it social problems including child marriage.
"We are coming to a very critical point," Mikati told Reuters in an interview in his Ottoman-style government offices overlooking central Beirut.
"We need help. Lebanon is bearing the burden of the events in Syria," he said. "We ask Arab countries to look supportively and sympathetically at Lebanon, because Lebanon needs these countries right now."
Any moment now their Arab brothers will spring into action and help will start pouring in. POURING. Any moment now. Just you wait.
International donors, including wealthy Gulf Arab states, have pledged $1.5 billion for refugees and displaced Syrians, but two Lebanese ministers - for social affairs and health - told Reuters on Tuesday they had not seen a penny of that money.
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Yep, exactly.
