Lack of refugee aid ‘putting millions at risk’

BEIRUT: UN aid agencies said yesterday that a $4.5 billion (R54.6bn) appeal to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was less than a quarter funded, putting millions of vulnerable people at risk.

The shortfall has meant 1.6 million refugees have had their food assistance cut this year and 750 000 children are not attending school, the agencies and partner organisations said, calling on countries to deliver on their pledges.

“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 UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

The refugee response plan is a $5.5bn appeal, with $4.5bn earmarked for UN agencies and NGOs. An additional $1bn is intended to help regional countries hosting refugees. “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,” it said.

It 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.

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 II.

The appeal predicts that there will be 4.27 million Syrian refugees in the region by the end of 2015 and the funds also aim to assist more than 20 million local people in communities hosting refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. – Reuters