Visual Mission: Ceasefire Sees Mass Return of Internally Displaced People in Lebanon

With the advent of the ceasefire at 8:00am on Monday, August 14, thousands of internally displaced people and refugees began rushing home to see what was left of their homes in southern Lebanon, the Beqaa valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Estimates at one checkpoint in Beirut said that 1,200 cars per hour passed by and 12,000 refugees returned from Syria. As humanitarian agencies scramble to get to the South to assess the needs of the returnees and reach the people who had been trapped due to fighting and shelling, the humanitarian response is trying to shift rapidly from serving food to people to clearing roads from unexploded ordinance and providing shelter to the returnees.

Lebanon 2006: Internally Displaced People Return Home After Ceasefire Photo Credit: Refugees International 08/15/2006 Thousands of internally displaced people returned to their homes in the South of Lebanon and in the southern suburbs of Beirut within hours of the ceasefire. These two men told us “We have been living in this park in Beirut for 2 weeks. We fled when they leafleted our home in Dahiyeh and came here. The situation is degrading and although we are not 100 percent sure of the ceasefire, our house is still standing so we will go home.”

Previous Photo 1 of 4 Next

All Photos in Report

Related Countries Lebanon Related Issues Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Return & Reintegration Related Missions Lebanon & Syria: Mission to Assess Humanitarian Conditions

More Photo Reports Visual Mission: Displaced in Adjumani, northern Uganda Visual Mission: Clothing Distribution at Shimelba Refugee Camp in Ethiopia Visual Mission: Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia Visual Mission: World Refugee Day in Guereda’s Kounoungou camp Visual Mission: Nubians in Kenya Seek Closure on Statelessness

Search

Stay Informed

Resources

What I can do to help

Photo Gallery

Act Now!

 

All content (c) 2004 Refugees International. All Rights Reserved