Doha Al-Dayekh and her husband Zuhair Al-Ashqar have lived in the same tent in northern Lebanon since they first fled Syria’s brutal war in 2013. It was all their son Mahmoud (7) and daughter Hoda (3) knew, before she died in early September.
Now the tent feels quiet and empty, the mood is “very depressed”, Al-Ashqar says, sitting inside it. Amid his grief, he partly blames the Irish Government for delaying their resettlement to Ireland, and for not helping with medical care when Hoda was in her last weeks of life.
The family were among roughly 375 vulnerable Syrian refugees approved for resettlement to Ireland following an Irish delegation’s visit to Lebanon in November 2022.
Of those chosen, 185 were under the age of 18 at the time.
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Despite being told they could expect to arrive in Ireland by the end of 2023, only four families have travelled so far, leaving the rest trapped and desperate in a war zone. Many say they have had little or no communication with Irish authorities or the UN Refugee Agency since.
When the conflict escalated on September 23rd with Israel and Hizbullah engaging in tit-for-tat attacks, it forced some of those families to flee long distances, sleeping in the streets or temporary shelters. Some children suffered panic attacks from the sounds of drones and war planes, or from witnessing injured and dead people amid air strikes.
Some families remain in areas that are regularly attacked. They are terrified that the international airport – likely their only route out of Lebanon – will shut due to bombing, and commercial flights will no longer be available.
Al-Dayekh and Al-Ashqar were already fighting their own private battle: dealing with the death of their daughter. Hoda developed medical problems after the interview with the Irish delegation, they said – she began struggling to speak, then to walk. She died after her heart stopped multiple times and resuscitation finally failed.
Al-Ashqar struggled to get her a diagnosis and adequate medical care, in a country with a well-publicised healthcare crisis.
Hoda was admitted to hospital in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, but her father says the bills became too high for NGOs and the UN to cover. He says hospital administrators threatened to throw Hoda out, despite her being in a coma by then.
He says he contacted the Irish consulate in Lebanon and begged that his family’s resettlement to Ireland either be sped up, or that Irish authorities assist with Hoda’s care – but he says he was told they could not help.
“I made every effort to treat her or travel with her to your country, but death was faster, and it was all due to the negligence and indifference of the authorities responsible for resettlement,” Al-Ashqar told The Irish Times.
Hoda “was very cute and beloved by everyone here in the camp, everyone liked her. She always played with her brother, now it’s very quiet in the tent”, said Al-Dayekh, scrolling through photos of their daughter in hospital.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which oversees the resettlement programme, said it does not comment on individual cases.
A spokesman for the department said last week that the ongoing accommodation shortage, as well as the increases in international protection applicants and arrivals of Ukrainians, continues to affect Ireland’s ability to resettle selected refugees from Lebanon. He said they are monitoring the situation and are “conscious of how difficult lengthy waiting periods to travel are on the families concerned”.
More people are scheduled to travel this month, he said, with further arrivals anticipated before the end of the year. The Irish resettlement programme will “continue to work to make sure the families are brought to Ireland at the earliest opportunity”.
He said 15 of the families have been selected for resettlement specifically under the Community Sponsorship Ireland Programme, which offers the Irish public a chance to support and sponsor families, and “efforts are ongoing to ensure that arrivals of these families commence as soon as possible”.
For the families in Lebanon, any wait feels too long.
The tent Al-Dayekh, Al-Ashqar and Mahmoud live in is flimsy. “In winter, it’s like you are sleeping in the streets outside. You hear every drop of rain, and nothing can heat the tent. In summer it was so hot, made of plastic, it’s like we live in the street,” Al-Ashqar said.
It is close to a rubbish dump. Sewage from houses higher on the hill drains down towards their tent, leading to a terrible smell, particularly at night. They share a bathroom with at least 10 other families, and the conditions look set to become increasingly strained as more people arrive there, fleeing Israeli air strikes.
This week, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said that Akkar – where their camp is – is hosting nearly 70,000 newly displaced people due to the latest escalation in war. “The strain on Akkar’s public services is increasing, with urgent needs in healthcare, waste management and shelter,” Riza said.
Alongside that, Al-Ashqar said they see fighter jets flying over the camp. “[We are] living in a state of great terror,” he said.
Al-Ashqar’s brother travelled to Ireland in 2017 under the refugee resettlement scheme; Al-Ashqar said he is very happy there. His dream now is for seven-year-old Mahmoud to “receive education, to live in an apartment, to have a future”.
“To stay safe,” added Al-Dayekh.
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