Plight of Syrians is worsening, says top EU diplomat

THE EUROPEAN Union’s top diplomat has warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is making the plight of poverty-stricken Syrians far worse and urged donors to dig deep to help the Middle East country wracked by more than a decade of civil war.

Opening a donor event in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, inset, said 60 per cent of Syria’s population “suffer food insecurity, and barely know where the next meal is going to come from”.

“The Russian war will increase food and energy prices and the situation in Syria will become worse,” he said.

Mr Borrell said the 27-nation bloc would provide an additional €1bn (£860m) for Syria this year, bringing the annual total to €1.5bn (£1.28bn). He said the EU would also provide €1.56bn (£1.34bn) next year.

“Our strong political commitment to Syria must be backed by equally strong financial commitments,” he said. He vowed that the EU would maintain sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, and stressed there can be no normalised relations until Syrian refugees are “safe to go back home”.

Food prices around the world were already rising, but the war in Ukraine – a major wheat supplier – has made things worse. The impact is worsening the plight of millions of Syrians driven from their homes by the country’s 11-year war. Many rely on international aid to survive.

The war in Ukraine has also created a whole new group of refugees. European nations and the US have rushed to help more than 5.5 million Ukrainians who have fled to neighbouring countries, as well as more than seven million displaced within Ukraine’s borders.

Half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million people was displaced by the conflict.

Aid agencies are hoping to draw some of the world’s attention back to Syria at Tuesday’s conference, hosted by the EU and the United Nations. The funding also goes toward aid for the 5.7 million Syrian refugees living in neighbouring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Non-EU country Norway said on Monday that it would provide 1.5 billion kroner (£125m) in 2021 to assist people in Syria and neighbouring countries.

Last year, the EU, the US and other nations pledged $6.4bn to help Syrians and neighbouring countries hosting refugees, but that fell well short of the $10bn the UN had sought.