Refugees endure worsening conditions as Syria's conflict enters 5th year
Geneva, 12 March 2015 - As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, millions of refugees in neighbouring countries and those displaced within the country are caught in alarmingly deteriorating conditions, facing an even bleaker future without more international support, UNHCR warned today.
With no political solution to the conflict in sight, most of the 3.9 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt see no prospect of returning home in the near future, and have scant opportunity to restart their lives in exile. Well over half of all Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in insecure dwellings - up from a third last year - posing a constant challenge to keep them safe and warm. A survey of 40,000 Syrian families in Jordan's urban areas found that two-thirds were living below the absolute poverty line.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres reiterated that much, much more needed to be done to pull Syrians out of their nightmare of suffering. "After years in exile, refugees' savings are long depleted and growing numbers are resorting to begging, survival sex and child labour. Middle-class families with children are barely surviving on the streets: one father said life as a refugee was like being stuck in quicksand - every time you move, you sink down further," he said.
"This worst humanitarian crisis of our era should be galvanizing a global outcry of support, but instead help is dwindling. With humanitarian appeals systematically underfunded, there just isn't enough aid to meet the colossal needs - nor enough development support to the hosting countries creaking under the strain of so many refugees," Guterres added. He pointed out that with the massive influx of Syrian refugees over the past four years, Turkey had now become the world's biggest refugee hosting country and had spent over US$ 6 billion on direct assistance to refugees.
But faced with growing security concerns and insufficient international support, several of Syria's neighbours have taken measures in recent months to stem the flow of refugees, from new border management regulations to more onerous and complex requirements to extend their stay.
More and more Syrians are losing hope. Thousands have tried to reach Europe by taking often deadly land or sea routes after paying their life savings to smugglers. Many have not made it. Those who do, face rising hostility as refugees are conflated with security concerns in a climate of rising panic.
"Refugees are made scapegoats for any number of problems from terrorism to economic hardship and perceived threats to their host communities' way of life. But we need to remember that the primary threat is not from refugees, but to them," Guterres said.
Inside Syria, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. More than 12 million people are in need of aid to stay alive. Almost 8 million have been forced from their homes, sharing crowded rooms with other families or camping in abandoned buildings. An estimated 4.8 million Syrians inside the country are in places that are hard to reach, including 212,000 trapped in besieged areas.
Millions of children are suffering from trauma and ill health. A quarter of Syria's schools have been damaged, destroyed or taken over for shelter. More than half of Syria's hospitals are destroyed.
More than 2.4 million children inside Syria are not in school. Among refugees, nearly half of all children are not receiving an education in exile. In Lebanon, there are more school-age refugees than the entire intake of the country's public schools, and only 20 per cent of Syrian children are enrolled. Similar numbers can be seen among refugees living outside of camps in Turkey and Jordan.
"We have only a narrow opportunity to intervene now as this potentially lost generation confronts its future. Abandoning refugees to hopelessness only exposes them to even greater suffering, exploitation and dangerous abuse," Guterres warned.
There are more Syrians under UNHCR's care today than any other nationality on earth. Yet by the end of last year, only 54 per cent of the funding needed to assist refugees outside Syria had been raised. Inside Syria, humanitarian organizations received even less.
In December, the UN launched the largest aid appeal ever for $8.4 billion. Fully funded, this would cover basic needs for refugees, while also helping host communities to bolster their infrastructure and services. UNHCR is hoping significant pledges will be made at the funding conference in Kuwait on 31 March.
"Further abandoning host countries to manage the situation on their own could result in serious regional destabilisation, increasing the likelihood of more security concerns elsewhere in the world," Guterres said.
Additional Information:
Accompanying multimedia elements including video, photos, and features stories are available at http://www.unhcr.org/syriayear5. More content will be uploaded daily in the lead up to the anniversary on Sunday.
For interview availability and other questions, please contact UNHCR's media team. Their details below:
Media contacts:
- Geneva: Melissa Fleming, +41 22 939 7965
- Ariane Rummery, +41 79 200 76 17
- Iraq and regional: Bathoul Ahmed, +962 79 022 42 81
- Jordan: Hélène Daubelcore, +962 79 88 91 307
- Lebanon: Dana Sleiman, +961 71 910 626
- Syria: Firas Al-Khateeb, +963 930 40 3228
- Turkey: Selin Unal, +90 530 282 7862
- Egypt: Marwa Hashem, +20 122 3 124 016
Your search for « shelter » matched 10555 results. Only the first 1,000 results are displayed. Displaying page 26 of 112 pages.
-
Former Iraqi refugees benefit from UNHCR shelter programme in the south
20 May 2010 ... to new houses earlier this month in the southern province of Missan under a UNHCR shelter programme. ... and decided to include them in the agency's shelter programme, which saw UNHCR fund the ...... -
UNHCR Syria: A Year in Review 2013
31 Jan 2014 ... Based Protection ▪ Core Relief Items ▪ Shelter ▪ Health • Field Offices ▪ Damascus and ... Mar Apr May 2013 TIMELINE Rehabilitation of the first seven shelters (housing 2,700 displaced) is ...... -
Safe Haven: A comparative report
May 2013 ... ... sexual and gender-based violence and safe shelter contexts / 16 Colombia / 16 ... / 28 Protection Gaps / 30 iv. shelter residence and operations / 34 ...... -
300,000 people lose homes, incomes, food supplies and belongings due to catastrophic flooding in Yemen
21 Aug 2020 ... in overcrowded, makeshift shelters made from plastic sheeting or mud which have been washed away or sustained significant damage. People are now being forced to shelter in mosques, schools or with ...... -
Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett calls for increased aid for Rohingya refugees
21 Mar 2018 ... She now lives in a bamboo shelter built on the side of a steep hill. “The monsoon is coming and I’m scared that the wind will blow away the roof. There are shelters above mine that would fall on ...... -
Moldovan GBV shelter offers safety and a community for refugees from Ukraine
2 Aug 2022 ... Moldovan GBV shelter offers safety and a community for refugees from Ukraine A welcome at Casa ... Veronika Cernat, 38, who manages the shelter. “When the war happened, we decided to ...... -
Media - No Stranger Place
... "I see their humanity, their love and kindness… They gave me life again." Ahmad, Syrian refugee in Sweden How you can help refugees find shelter Latest data: Mediterranean sea arrivals to Greece ...... -
Danny Ocean
... Danny visited UNHCR projects in Mexico City, where he met with a Venezuelan refugee family and with children who had escaped gang violence in Central America, finding safety at a shelter in Mexico. ...... -
Emergencies
... cash assistance, shelter, and tackling sexual exploitation; We transfer funds from our emergency reserves directly to our local teams on the ground, so they can set up shelters, buy food and ......