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 17 of 112 pages.
-
UNHCR begins delivery of shelter materials
26 Oct 2001 ... this week started delivering locally procured shelter materials for minor repair of houses damaged ... A convoy of 6 trucks brought shelter material to drop off points in Lipkovo and Vaksince, to cover ...... -
As new arrivals top half a million in Bangladesh, UNHCR getting ever more refugees into shelter
29 Sep 2017 ... Giving the newly arrived refugees the ability to construct their own shelter, begin cooking for themselves and taking care of their families is an important first step on the road to healing. The ...... -
Shelter project spreads hope to refugees
27 Aug 2019 ... 0 See also: Cash for shelter programme empowers refugees and their hosts in Kenya... -
Number of refugees fleeing South Sudan tops 1.5 million
10 Feb 2017 ... ... Uganda shelters thousands of 1.5 million refugees from South Sudan Appealing for more assistance, UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler added: “More than 60 per cent of the refugees are children, many ...... -
UNHCR to provide shelter in tsunami-struck Somalia
5 Jan 2005 ... The most pressing needs are drinking water, food, medication and shelter. The refugee agency has taken charge of the shelter part of the operation - targeting 18,000 Somalis - marking the first time ...... -
UNHCR delivers tents to keep typhoon-affected families together
21 Nov 2013 ... UNHCR is working with the Philippine authorities to provide temporary shelter for vulnerable people ... the protection cluster with the government and is a member of the emergency shelter cluster. ...... -
Mozambique starts moving Cyclone Idai survivors closer to home
23 Apr 2019 ... On Saturday 200 families were moved out of emergency shelters in the central town of Beira. It’s hoped that over the next 10 days some 70,000 further people will be moved out of the temporary sites ...... -
New shelter eases monsoon threat for young Rohingya family
3 Mar 2020 ... as she lays 17-month-old Arafat down for a nap in the shade of their new bamboo-framed shelter. ... – 80 per cent of them women and children. “Our biggest challenge used to be shelter ... ...... -
UNHCR launches massive airlift of tents for Afghanistan's drought-displaced
27 Nov 2018 ... Currently, some 220,000 families are living in makeshift shelters in the western provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor. And, with winter approaching, in conditions that are increasingly desperate. ......