UN pleads for Syria refugee aid to be speeded up

A shortfall in funding has meant that 1.6 million refugees have had their food assistance cut this year, while 750,000 children are not attending school.

A young Syrian refugee re-enters the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, from which his family had fled, with his parents on June 22, 2015. Uygar Onder Simsek/AFP Photo

BEIRUT // The United Nations said on Thursday that only a quarter of the $4.5 billion needed to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 had been received, and that the lack of funding had already led to cuts in vital assistance.

The shortfall has meant that 1.6 million refugees have had their food assistance cut this year, while 750,000 children are not attending school, the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, said, calling on countries to deliver on their pledges.

This “massive crisis requires far more solidarity and responsibility-sharing from the international community than what we have seen so far”, he added.

“We are so dangerously low on funding that we risk not being able to meet even the most basic survival needs of millions of people over the coming six months.”

The refugee response plan for Syria is a US$5.5bn (Dh20.2bn) appeal, with $4.5bn earmarked for more than 200 UN agencies and partner non-governmental organisations. An additional $1bn is intended to help regional countries hosting refugees.

Of the money for the agencies and NGOs, only $1.06bn had been received by the end of May, leaving a $3.47bn funding gap, Mr Guterres said. He did not specify which donors had failed to deliver on their pledges.

“If more funds are not forthcoming soon, up to 130,000 vulnerable families will not be provided with cash assistance to help them meet their basic needs and vulnerable people will stop receiving their monthly food vouchers altogether,” he added.

The UNHCR warned that up to 1.7 million people may face winter this year without fuel, shelter, insulation, blankets or warm clothes. Last year, refugees – including children – died during an especially fierce snowstorm that hit the region.

Syria’s conflict is now in its fifth year and has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced around half of the population. UN aid agencies have described it as one of the worst refugee crises since World War Two.

The appeal predicts that there will be 4.27 million Syrian refugees in the Middle East by the end of 2015. Funds raised through the appeal are also intended to assist more than 20 million local people hosting refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

As pressures on host countries continue to grow, it has become increasingly difficult for Syrians to find safety, including by seeking asylum, the UNHCR said.

“These difficulties have resulted in an increase in the number of Syrians seeking safety and refuge beyond the region, including by taking often dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean to try and reach Europe,” he added.

Mr Guterres called on the international community to share more of the burden, not only through timely funding but also by providing additional resettlement opportunities and other forms of humanitarian admission.

Otherwise, “a generation of Syrians will be left behind, and neighbouring countries will continue to struggle to provide a public good that they cannot and should not have to bear alone.”

* Reuters