BEIRUT (AP) The days are long at the al-Faour settlement in Lebanon. Women draw on cigarettes to help pass the time, their faces haggard and sunburned. Children play outside their tents in bright, ragged clothes and worn-out shoes.
They are a few of Syria's refugees in Lebanon, driven out of their homes by a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions.
For those who cannot afford to rent homes, living conditions can be appalling. Unlike in Jordan and Turkey, the Lebanese government has ruled out erecting refugee camps for political reasons.
Instead, many refugees live in collective shelters, underground parking lots and abandoned construction sites. Others sleep on sidewalks, under bridges and in tin shacks strung up with laundry lines.
Lebanon, a tiny country of about 4.5 million, now officially hosts more than 700,000 refugees. There are likely many more. President Michel Suleiman has said at least one million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon, with thousands more crossing over each week.
