Beiruting News

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie is visiting Lebanon to highlight the plight of Syrian children, and to thank the Lebanese people for assisting refugees as the conflict enters its fourth year. On her three-day visit, which began this weekend, she met refugee families and held talks with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Ms. Jolie met orphaned Syrian children who fled to Lebanon and who are now living in the Bekaa Valley. There are 3,500 unaccompanied children, or children who have been separated from their families, now known to be living in Lebanon. Ms. Jolie said: "Meeting these children was a heart-rending experience. They have lost their families and their childhood has been hijacked by war. They are so young, yet they are bearing the burdens of their reality as if they are adults."

Throughout the visit, Ms. Jolie stressed the vital contribution that Lebanon is making as the recipient of the largest share of refugees from the crisis. With the number of registered refugees nearing the one million mark, Lebanon has the highest per capita concentration of refugees of any country in recent history. If the US were to welcome a comparable number of refugees relative to its population size, it would be sheltering 75 million people.