By Yara Bayoumy

BEDDAWI CAMP, Lebanon, June 17 (Reuters) - The United Nations school in the north Lebanon Beddawi camp is heaving with lice-infested, barefoot children and crams dozens of people in a single classroom.

The school is where many Palestinian refugees sought shelter after fighting flared between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired militants in the nearby Nahr al-Bared camp, forcing them and thousands of others to flee.

But a month on since the fighting erupted, many refugees say they wished they had never left Nahr al-Bared, home to about 40,000 refugees, despite how dangerous it is, due to the uncomfortable living conditions in Beddawi.

"There is danger in Nahr al-Bared but it would still be better than living here," said Nisreen Abdelaal, 24, carrying her seven-month-old baby.

"Over there we were living with our dignity intact. But is this a life?" she asks, waving her hand at the garbage-laden cramped classroom that has become her family home.

"We keep getting moved from room to room, we're eating on the floor, we're given sour milk."

The school walls are festooned with banners giving instructions on maintaining hygiene and asking refugees to be considerate of others trying to sleep.

But it is impossible to maintain any level of cleanliness or order in this two-storey school as relief workers struggle to help all who come in. At least 27,000 refugees have fled from Nahr al-Bared, mostly to the Beddawi camp.

Many of their homes were destroyed by the heavy shelling at the camp. They have no idea when they will return home, if they even have homes to go back to, or if they will be moved somewhere else.

"MISERABLE LIFE"

Desks and chairs were dumped at the back of classrooms or in corridors to make room for refugees.

Thin sponge mattresses are strewn on dirty floors, donated clothes are hung to dry on old furniture and the school walls reverberate with the constant shouting of frantic parents and the cries of restless children.

"We left because of the children otherwise we would've stayed," said Ibrahim al-Jundy, who has four children and a pregnant wife.

As more refugees streamed to the school, mobile latrines were set up in the courtyard. Hopelessly muddy, reeking of raw sewage, the state of the bathrooms are the worst complaint of refugees.

"The food they give us is inedible. I don't have enough mattresses. I leave them for my children, and I sleep on the stone floor," said Asmahan. Still other refugees, regardless of the filth, the over-crowding and bad food, rate the lack of privacy as the thing they miss.

Hanaa, 30, said: "The children are always fighting, it's always noisy, people are mentally exhausted. At home we had our own space and freedom. If I could go back and sleep on the sand, I would.

"This is a miserable life."

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