The truth about the Syrian refugee crisis

Out now with a majestic looking Enya on the cover, the bumper Hot Press 2016 Annual features a major On The Refugee Crisis Frontline report in which Stuart Clark travels with Concern to meet Syrian people who’ve been forced to flee across the border into Lebanon.
“There was a lot of government bombing from the air,” Hodah, a mother of ten who was forced to flee Homs in 2013 for Tripoli, tells us. “We left without taking anything from our house, which was above the mini-market we owned. A woman on our street was killed. We went to different places inside Syria before we came here. Rents and other living costs are far higher in Tripoli than they were at home. There are nine of us in our house, but only five are getting the $14 a month World Food Programme vouchers. It is very difficult to survive.”
“I’m very proud and to live like this makes me feel like less of a man,” says Mayzar whose family of 12 are also struggling to get by in a damp-riddled and vermin-infested tower block. “Sunnis, Shias., Christians… we all got on. Assad created divisions in Syria that weren’t there before. Neighbours turned against each other. Friends became enemies. It was very sad.”
"We want to stay here and bring up our children," Ahmed stresses when we ask if he's contemplated moving his family to Europe or North America. "We are not terrorists. Love and peace, that's what we believe in."
We see how Concern have improved the lives of hundreds of Syrian families living in garages, outhouses, derelict buildings and other makeshift homes by installing windows, doors, water and septic tanks, toilets, washing facilities and pathways, and helped ‘winterise’ tents being lived in by others by providing wood, tarpaulins, concrete and tool-kits.
The key message, as the organisation launches its Refugee Winter Crisis Appeal, is that those standing orders and one-off donations from Concern supporters are getting through to the people who desperately need them.