Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I have had the melancholy duty, I suppose, of speaking to refugees in Jordan and in Lebanon. Only last month I travelled to a village in the Bekaa Valley in Northern Lebanon, close to the border with Syria. I saw a UNICEF childcare centre and met a group of Syrian women who only that night had crossed over the border following the fighting in Qatar. The stories were ones of tragedy. They had lost family members. They had lost the means of their livelihood. They had lost cows, they had lost cars and they had lost their houses. They had seen communities wiped out.

Lebanon is hosting around half a million refugees—and the number could grow to a million by the end of the year. One Lebanese politician told me that, if there is intensive fighting around Damascus, he would not be surprised if half a million refugees presented on the border with Lebanon. Another Lebanese politician said, 'Make that one million refugees from possible fighting.' Our friends in Lebanon are suffering. (Time expired)