(2018) In 2018 the lowest number of deaths per year since the beginning of the war in Syria was recorded, but the rate – 20.000 – is still emblematic of a conflict far from resolution. Furthermore, the situation is currently extremely complex for the millions of refugees and displaced people that struggle everyday to survive. In Lebanon, a country that has granted access to more than a million Syrian refugees – not counting irregular migrants – the right to mental health is not guaranteed. The refugees suffer from mental disorders due to miserable living conditions that are not respectful of human dignity; they are often deprived of a home, a job, education, and healthcare. Stuck in the net of a bureaucracy that acts more as a deterrent than a facilitator for access to services, they live in the impossibility of returning to Syria and building a future in Lebanon.

The most common symptomatology today is linked to anxiety, depression and stress, due to daily difficulties and no longer to trauma. For irregular Syrians or people without financial resources it is impossible to access the national health service, which is mostly not free of charge. Most of the work is, therefore, delegated to NGOs: some psychologists and psychiatrists are in charge of up to 90 patients at the same time, are unable to grant the suitable amount of time to each patient and have no means of covering all the cases due to the limited financial resources available. Donations to NGOs are fluctuating and increasingly uncertain since they are affected by the international context and by the widespread perception of a forthcoming conflict resolution: given the possibility of US troops' withdrawal from Syria and the re-admission of Assad into the Arab League, the geopolitical scenario could have significant repercussions for these people's right to mental health.