Mr. Peter Doyle:

On that point, the Senator mentioned the situation in Kobani. We are responding to that crisis. We have a team in southern Turkey and it is assisting refugees who are crossing over from Kobani with sanitation and some household items, hygiene kits and so forth.

Deputy Smith mentioned the host communities. It is a huge strain, particularly on the Lebanon. When one considers the size of Lebanon compared to Ireland and the number of people living there, the refugee population has increased the population by 20% to 25%, which has put a huge strain on the resources and infrastructure of that country. It is one of the reasons that Concern, along with other humanitarian actors, is focusing its strategy on assisting not just refugees, but also the Lebanese host population. For example, we are developing infrastructure for water, sanitation and managing waste. All of these things are benefiting both the Lebanese population and the refugee population. We also have some activities to reduce tensions and mitigate conflict between both populations.

I can confirm that effectively we are talking about half of the population of Syria being displaced, either internally or externally. Most of them are displaced internally and there are approximately 3 million displaced to other countries.

There was also a question about whether our positions are shared by other organisations and NGOs. In Lebanon in particular, but also in Turkey, Concern participates in various co-ordination mechanisms, for example, the Lebanon Humanitarian INGO Forum which comprises a number of international NGOs, and we have developed certain positions, some of which we have mentioned here today. In many cases these are shared positions with many different organisations.