rent apartment beirut

assistant secretary richard: so to give youa quick overview, this is the second time i've come to the un general assembly in thisjob and for this week of meetings, and i'll be going on to geneva next because the annualmeetings of unhcr are also taking place. and there will be a particular emphasis thereon syria crisis, as there has been, of course, all week here. and so a good part of my timehere this week has been focused on meetings related to the syria crisis - mostly humanitarianmeetings, but also i went to the international support group meeting on lebanon yesterday. and then another piece of what we're doingthis week - and this really is complementing and in league with the british - is talkingabout the need to fight gender-based violence

in crises all over the world. and so we supportedthe secretary in his announcement on monday of a $10 million initiative to work with humanitarianorganizations to do a better job preventing violence against women and girls right atthe early stages of a conflict and crisis, and not to just wait and later, say, "i thinkwe have a problem; let's bring in the experts," but instead have experts ready to go rightat the outset. so the third piece of what i do is to alsohave conversations, since there are so many leaders here, to have conversations aboutother parts of the world where there are displaced people - so from conversations about burmato conversations about migration with mexico, hopefully later today with the president ofmali - not to forget about the rest of the

world while we're also so very focused onwhat's going on in the middle east right now. one of the things that we had planned forthat came off very well was the president announcing $340 million of additional aidfor humanitarian responses to the syria crisis. in that - this is on top of $1 billion we'vealready given, so our total since the beginning of the crisis is now $1.3 billion. of that$340 million, $70 million will probably end up being spent in lebanon, working throughour partners, unhcr and others, nongovernmental organizations, icrc. so what we've found on the syria crisis isthat while we're the leading nation in contributing we are really allied with other major donorsin doing this. we're looking for more donors

to join us at the table; we're very pleasedwith kuwait's leadership on that. we'd like to see more from gulf countries. we're veryconcerned about what's happening inside syria, of course, and trying to get access and getaid in. and then we're also very concerned about the strains that having so many refugeesfleeing across syria's borders into neighboring countries, the strains that this is puttingon the neighboring countries. and so we're in frequent conversations, especiallywith jordan and lebanon, which just don't have the kind of economic strength that turkeydoes, about what else we can do to help, because we so appreciate - this is what i should'vestarted out with - we so appreciate the fact that refugees are being hosted in these neighboringcountries, because they really did flee for

their lives, and people have lost everything,their children have been traumatized. they have terrible, terrible stories to tell, andthis is where the neighbors have a responsibility to keep their borders open. but i think therest of the world has a responsibility to help the neighbors keep their borders openand to help them to meet this responsibility. and in all of our conversations, we have understoodthat this is not easy. the schools are overcrowded now, water in that part of the world is scarce,and there's been sort of a strain on all the resources of society. hospital beds are fullof syrians. and so we appreciate very much what the neighbors are doing, and we wantto be helpful. that's why i was so pleased that the secretaryyesterday at the international support group

for lebanon - i was able to sit next to him- he talked about not just our humanitarian assistance, but also some additional bilateralassistance for development purposes, to help lebanese society. i think that's somethingthat we all agree on. the other thing that's been useful is we'retrying to get the humanitarians and the development experts to talk more to each other. so thatmeans that my partners that i'm used to working with and funding - the high commission forrefugees, unicef, the world food program - that they're then talking more to un developmentprogram and the world bank. and the world bank had done this assessment very rapidlyabout the impact of the refugees on lebanon, and that assessment really did a good job,i think, of telling the story of the strains

on lebanese society that is being broughtto bear by the enormous refugee population, and also what we can foresee in the comingmonths. so this is the way these multilateral organizationsare supposed to work. and so this was a good day, i think, yesterday, in that we saw thiscoming together of these key organizations' leadership by these key countries in supportof lebanon. question: can i ask - when - what are youdoing, i mean, at the - it's - i know it's political, if you want to get un reactionor action on the humanitarian access front into syria. is there any work going on nowin this regard like issuing a product from the security council?

assistant secretary richard: well, i thinkthat the leader on this has been valerie amos [un undersecretary general for humanitarianaffairs and emergency relief coordinator], with whom we have a very good relationship.and she recently traveled in the region and also went to damascus, and so she has beenpushing for more and more access. she's pushing the regime, but she's also aware that in orderto get aid from one part of the country out to people who need it, you have to cross battlelines and you go from regime-controlled areas to disputed areas that are very dangerousto opposition-controlled areas, and so they have told us stories of all the checkpoints.kyung-wha kang, her deputy, had gone on one trip and had been stopped 54 times, i think.it takes three days to go what used to take

three hours. so we are hopeful that if there can be agreementson - among the security council on issues like chemical weapons, potentially there couldbe more done on humanitarian access, but i don't think we're there yet. this is the kindof conversations we're having this week. question: so are you working on a press statementor presidential statement or - assistant secretary richard: i can't giveyou any specifics right now, but we are constantly looking for opportunities to make some progresson this issue. question: is there any work on cross-borderaccess for - assistant secretary richard: cross-borderis always one of the issues raised in these

conversations, because we want to get aidto the people who need it. and it is proving to be very, very challenging, and so we wantto pursue all channels possible to get aid to people who need it. and what we're findingis aid is getting to all 14 governorates in syria, but within those governorates it'snot getting to all the places that need the help. and i think if you asked any un leaderof humanitarian organizations, they would tell you the same thing. i think people arebeing very frank about the positive pieces of this enormous, incredibly large-scale humanitarianeffort, but also the limitations of it. question: shall i? moderator: mm-hmm.

question: so as part of this group that waslaunched yesterday, i heard that there will be other events. now, one of them is goingto be on the humanitarian situation in lebanon. assistant secretary richard: mm-hmm. question: so what's your expectation fromthat meeting and who's going to - which is going to be held in geneva, right? assistant secretary richard: there is a meetingon monday in geneva that is focused on helping the neighboring countries cope with the refugeecrisis, and so it's - i think the - you'll have to check the unhcr website for the name,but i believe part of it is solidarity and part of it is burden sharing, which are bothimportant goals of the meeting. this is the

brainchild of the high commissioner for refugeesantonio guterres, someone i work with very closely and think very highly of. and so heis trying to help the neighbors manage the crisis. unhcr plays a different role in differentcountries. it's more supportive in turkey and it's more leadership and outreach to therefugees in lebanon, and then it's very much focused on both camp populations in jordanand turkey, but also the 75 percent of refugees who are not in camps in the region, whichmost people don't realize that so many refugees are living in cities and villages and amongstthe people. question: that's very important, actually.this is the issue in lebanon. and now my question is much more political, and i would like tohave -

assistant secretary richard: i may not beable to answer some political things because that's not my portfolio, but -- question: yeah. this is very interesting toknow, to see that there are camps in jordan, turkey, no camps in syria. and the only - andwhat you say, usually the usa says that those people have an interwining (ph) relationshipwith the lebanese, they are very much related - they are into the society. does it meanthat those who are in lebanon will be implemented under long term in lebanon? assistant secretary richard: will they stayfor a long time in lebanon? question: they will stay for a long time,because now the strain is on lebanon and the

strain also is the economy of lebanon becausethose people are willing to work for almost nothing, very cheap work. they are - the workplaceis becoming very dangerous place for the lebanese, and the economy is now - that's why you havethe group is working on this matter. question: but how long will they stay? howlong does it - can lebanon give this situation? and the problem is how you have - we havemore than one million, a quarter of the population is now refugee. how can lebanon handle thesituation? do we need to send them to canada, to the united states, or to europe in orderto help them really in this situation? assistant secretary richard: well, you'veasked a lot - you've raised a lot of really good points, so let me see if i can rememberall of them and walk through them, because

these are exactly the issues with which we'regrappling. i've been asked in recent weeks: how long are the refugees going to stay? howmuch is the total cost of this crisis? and no one can answer those questions. what haschanged from last year was that last year i was still hopeful that had the circumstancesof the fighting changed inside syria, one way or another, people would have been ableto go home relatively quickly. i no longer think that. that's because of the extent ofthe devastation inside syria - people have lost their homes, they've lost their workplaces,they've lost the normal parts of society that keep daily life possible from bread to schoolsto traffic flows. so this is going to require at some point in the future a major reconstructioneffort.

we could also anticipate that families maynot go back all at once if they could. they may split up. we could see a reverse flowof people leaving syria and others going back. so we don't know what the future holds, butwe do know they will not - this will not be over soon. there will be - even if peace came,there will be aftereffects. so in terms of inside lebanon, we have todo more than just short-term emergency relief. we have to look at development spigots, aswe call it. we have to look at development streams of funding coming, and we have toinvolve the development agencies like un development program and the world bank and other developmentagencies. and this is why u.s. agency for international development, who are our partnersin a lot of what we do, is so involved.

it also may involve either countries takingsome of the refugees temporarily or permanently. so we see that germany has stepped forwardand will take 5,000, and a number of other european countries are coming forward nowto take numbers on a temporary basis. and the unhcr is moving very quickly to work withthem to fulfill their promises. from the u.s. standpoint, we are the leaderof the world in resettling refugees in the u.s. permanently. so on september 30th, ourfiscal year will end and we will have brought in almost 70,000 refugees this year. so -- question: from where? (inaudible.) assistant secretary richard: from all aroundthe world. and the top three places are iraq,

bhutanese from nepal, and then the burmesefrom southeast asia. and so i can now anticipate that we will - if referred by unhcr, whichi expect they're planning to do - we will then start to add streams of syrians comingin. what we will try to do, working very closely with unhcr, is to take those who are the mostvulnerable, for whom going home is not an option, or perhaps a widow with children wherethe children have specific medical needs, let's say. so people who can't live on theirown or can't live well in a - thrive in a camp environment. so that is for us not a particularly controversialthing to bring refugees here because we do it every year, and we have this existing programand we do have security screening that all

refugees have to go through. but if they passthe security screening, being settled in the united states is not an issue. and we havesyrian americans who i'm sure will be very -- question: i'm syrian. assistant secretary richard: okay. (laughter.) question: and lebanese, so i come from allepo.so i have been embraced by the lebanese and i've become lebanese and i'm very proud, buti don't forget that i'm syrian. my family is in syria and they have to go paris waitingto go back to syria. assistant secretary richard: yeah.

question: so what does it mean? assistant secretary richard: well, and thisis why also the numbers - i don't argue about numbers because there's the number of refugeeswho are registered with unhcr, there's the number of refugees beyond that because somedon't register, and then there's the people who are already living overseas or in othercountries from syria who are wealthy, although some of them will be now running through theirsavings and needing help. so we are very aware. and this is where ithink travel to the region - i've been five times to the region, and i've been twice tobeirut, i've been four times amman. travel to the region really brings this home, thefull-scope impact of having all these refugees

in terms of like the things i was talkingabout before: hospital beds, classrooms, depressed wages potentially, competition for rentalspace, apartments, places to live. so this - i think that the government officials inseveral of these countries are very good at explaining that. and i think the world bankreport on lebanon also helps to get the lebanese story out. but i thought about the meeting yesterday,the international support group for lebanon. it was very important to show the lebanesegovernment, but more importantly the lebanese people, that the world is paying attentionand appreciates what's going on. and so that's why i was so pleased that our secretary ofstate came and that these other very senior

officials came to that meeting. and i talkedto the minister of social affairs abu faour because i've met him now a couple of timesto talk about these issues. i may see him again in geneva. and then president sleimani got to meet in kuwait in january at the pledging conference, and he was up on thedais. and there were a lot of praise for the way - the hospitality he extended to the refugees,and also the way that the lebanese citizenry is coping with this. question: just a technical question. what- under which status you're providing - you're bringing refugees to the u.s.? assistant secretary richard: if unhcr makesa refugee status determination that they are

refugees and then refers them for resettlement,we will then help get them ready for an interview by the department of homeland security. andif the department of homeland security feels that they do not represent a threat to u.s.,and that their story is consistent, that they've been telling the truth, then the state departmentsponsors a program to bring them to the united states. and then we have partners who arenongovernmental organizations across the united states in 300 places. question: i meant, do they come to the u.s.as refugees -- assistant secretary richard: as refugees. question: -- or not political asylum seekers?

assistant secretary richard: well, the differencein our system is that if you arrive at the airport on a visa or you come in on a studentvisa or you come on a tourist visa, and while you're here you realize you can't go home,you can seek asylum. and then you will either be granted asylum and get to stay, but nospecial benefits -- question: (inaudible.) assistant secretary richard: -- or you'llbe refused - you'll be turned down and deported. but this program, before you arrive, it'sbeen determined that you are in fact a refugee. and so when you arrive, we help you. we havea whole program to admit you and to help you get resettled, and so there's support providedto you to get the kids in school, to help

you find a job, and to sign you up for allthe benefits of life in the united states. question: okay. my question, in fact, whetherthe u.s. would support building camps for syrian refugees in lebanon and -- assistant secretary richard: this has beena question i've been asked in beirut when i visited, and we can't make that decisionfor other governments. i think we constantly have to ask ourself, what's the best thingfor the refugees? and my sense is the best thing for the refugees can sometimes be livingin a home-like situation where you have a lot of autonomy and it's as close as possibleto what your life was like before you left. that's not always possible, and clearly, injordan they started off by having no camps.

they had transit camps and people were bailedout and taken in by relatives, taken in by friends, business associates, sometimes evenstrangers showed up and said, "i'll take in some." the numbers were so big they determinedthat they were being overwhelmed, and they chose to build camps. and the camps have amixed story in terms of - they have succeeded in keeping people sheltered and getting aidand giving them a place to stay. and it's been very challenging to get children educatedand to keep women and girls safe. you may have heard that there's a phenomenon of earlymarriage, there have been issues about security of the zaatari camp. zaatari is now the fourthlargest city in jordan. turkey took a different approach. turkey saideverybody goes to camps, and then they built

a series of smaller camps, so that now theyhave 21 camps and they have two more on the drawing boards. so it's not a yes-no question for me, yes-noanswer. we think it's great when they live - refugees live like normal people in an apartment,the kids go to local school, somebody gets permission to work. that's the ideal. thecurrent situation is so challenging, it's so very overwhelming. the numbers, the scale,the scope of this crisis is just challenging everybody. so my job is not to go around and criticizethis aspect of a government's generosity or this aspect. it's instead to figure out howthe rest of the world can come to the aid

of these governments who are doing so much. question: when are you going back to the (inaudible)? assistant secretary richard: yeah. i don'tknow. i am trying to make every other trip a trip to the region, and then the in-betweentrips to someplace not in the middle east so that i - because my responsibilities areglobal, and so i'm - i have been to colombia, i've been to talk about displaced personsin ecuador where there are colombian refugees, i've been to south sudan and camps for sudaneseand somalis in kenya. so i imagine that - i think i'm going to ethiopia this fall, sobefore too long, i will be back definitely. and i must say beirut is a beautiful cityto visit. the food is fantastic, the people

are lovely, and the fact that americans areadvised not to travel there, it just breaks my heart. i mean -- question: can't you do something about that? assistant secretary richard: well, i don'tknow if they - if i should tell them to travel there. question: well, there is a terror warningthere and yet those who came during the summer, they had the best of their life - best timeof their lives, so maybe you can release the [travel warning]. assistant secretary richard: that's definitelynot my portfolio. (laughter.)

question: so it can help it, can help (inaudible). assistant secretary richard: but i just thinklebanon is a beautiful place with beautiful people, and the spillover from syria is aterrible shame and a threat to lebanese society, clearly. question: do you expect an end of the crisisin syria? assistant secretary richard: i pray for - i'mnot a very religious person - i pray for the end of the crisis in syria. i really do. idon't make any predictions because we predicted sort of worst-case scenarios last year andthey all came true. and so i don't want to give false hope or unrealistic optimism. ithink this is a very daunting challenge.

question: thank you, madam richard. assistant secretary richard: merci, madam.(laughter.)