Syria’s brutal civil war has laid waste to what was, once upon a time, a great nation. The country’s non-combatants have been caught between the massive firepower of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the deadly single-minded pursuit of rebel forces that include Islamic State. More than half of all Syrians have been forced to abandon their homes; almost 4 million have fled the country and are overwhelming neighbouring states. The situation within Syria is so bad that a quarter-million people have even sought refuge in war-torn Iraq.
Photojournalist Liam Maloney has been covering the Syrian crisis since 2013. His images of Syrians living in Lebanon put a face on the suffering of Syria’s four million desperate refugees.
One of the most necessary initiatives on the ground is to give refugee children badly-needed access to education. This UNICEF tent functions as a makeshift classroom.
Sara's mother with her two older children in their damp, leaky shack. Originally from Yabroud, Syria, she says her baby never would have died if they had remained in their village. Their home was looted and destroyed by a rocket soon after they left it last year.
Sara was just 36 days old when she died of exposure. Her mother says the doctor told her that her tiny body could not withstand the constant chill. Her body was buried illegally under a tree in a Palestinian cemetery in Beirut. The family is not permitted to visit her grave.
Mourners carry the body of Mimona Al Khassah, 74, a Syrian refugee who died of heart failure. They are now stacking the bodies of Syrian refugees who die on top of each other, up to four in one plot due to a lack of space.
A discarded political billboard featuring former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is used as a roof on a Syrian refugee's tented shelter erected alongside an irrigation canal on agricultural land.
Moamna Al Msalem, 31, with her daughters, 11-month-old Raghdaa and four-year old Maryam. The girls' father lost his mind not long after they arrived in Lebanon. His wife thinks it was the stress of leaving home and being unable to find work to support his family that led to his illness.
Seven year-old Aysam sits at home in the rooftop apartment he shares with his mother and two younger sisters. Aysam has not attended school since the family fled to Lebanon, and is reluctant to leave the house since his father's psychotic episodes made him the target of local bullies.
Syrian refugees line up outside the office of an Islamic Association. They had heard about $50 fuel vouchers being distributed and word had spread quickly. Fuel is expensive and desperately needed to keep cold tented shelters and unheated buildings warm.
A guard dog feeds on the body of a lamb behind a scrapyard. On the other side of the ruined walls, 500 Syrian refugee families live in tents.
Syrian children living in a tented encampment on agricultural land play together. Almost 35% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are school-age children. Only a fraction of them are receiving regular schooling, and many have not attended school since they left Syria.