Amman (09 July 2015) – More than four years after the beginning of the Syrian conflict, a staggering four million Syrian refugees have been registered in the region by UNHCR; further proof that this protracted crisis is one of the worst in recent history, says aid organization CARE International.
“The ongoing conflict in Syria has affected more than half of the nation’s population of 23 million people, four million of whom felt they had no other choice than to flee their country and are now living as refugees,” says Holly Solberg, Regional MENA Director for CARE International. “Unfortunately, the humanitarian impacts of this crisis are not sufficiently in the spotlight. We simply aren’t seeing the level of international commitment and sustained resources required to improve the situation. Seven months into the year, only 25 percent of the UN’s funding appeal has been met, indicating that aid commitments to the Syrian crisis have either declined or not been fulfilled, while needs continue to grow.” *
“It is not only the needs of refugees, but also the burden on host communities that must be recognized and shared,” says Solberg. Countries like Lebanon, home to around 1.2 million Syrian refugees, making up about 25 percent of the nation’s population; Jordan with 10% of the population now registered as Syrian refugees, and Turkey which is hosting more than 1.7 million registered Syrian refugees, are suffering from massive impacts on income and expenditures of both refugees and their host communities. Schools are overcrowded, sometimes operating in two shifts, hospitals are unable to provide proper care to all refugees; and water, work, and accommodations have become even scarcer.
“Capacities are more than overstretched. These few neighboring countries cannot handle the burden alone. As the four millionth Syrian becomes a registered refugee in a neighboring country, we call on donors to support organizations such as CARE and the governments of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and the rest of the countries in the region who are hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees”, says Solberg. CARE supports Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Yemen, in addition to helping displaced people inside Syria, through the provision of emergency cash assistance, psychosocial support, information, referrals, and strengthening of water supply and sewage systems, so both Syrian refugees and host families’ lives are improved.
“We should not forget that Syrian refugees, after more than four years of the conflict, are still living in unfinished buildings, rundown apartments, and informal settlements,” says Solberg. “Most of the refugees had to flee their country in a few minutes with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, leaving family, friends and the life they had known behind. They have lost their homes, work, studies, and family members. After years of being refugees, they have no resources left and a very bleak future to look forward to. It’s simply not sustainable, nor acceptable.”
While the four-millionth-refugee benchmark represents UNHCR-registered Syrian refugees in the region, host governments suspect that the total number of Syrian refugees in their countries far exceeds the official numbers. “With so few Syrian refugees being resettled worldwide, global communities have a bigger role to play by taking some of the burden off host communities in the region and resettling more Syrians in other countries,” adds Solberg. “CARE calls on the global community to resettle more Syrian refugees from their original host countries.” According to Amnesty International, the total number of resettlement places offered to Syrian refugees to date is less than 90,000.
CARE's Syria Response
CARE's provision of life-saving services to Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Yemen and to people affected by the crisis in Syria has already reached more than 800,000 people. In Jordan, CARE provides emergency cash assistance for refugees so they can pay for basic living costs, including rent, medication and food. CARE assists with vital information on how refugees can access further health, legal and social support and provides psychosocial assistance to women, men and children. CARE Lebanon repairs water and sanitation infrastructure, provides health education sessions, works with municipalities to improve water supply and sanitation infrastructure for refugees as well as for host communities. CARE Turkey is providing life-saving aid, food security and livelihoods, and water and sanitation kits’ distribution and awareness raising to Syrian refugees. CARE Turkey is also providing gender and protection assistance to Syrian refugees through distributions of dignity kits to women, girls, and elderly, establishment of community groups for females and males, and training them on first aid and protection case reporting, providing mother and child friendly spaces, and activities, and doing information dissemination and referrals between organizations.
Syrian volunteers, who are refugees themselves, are an integral part of CARE's Syria Response. Alongside Jordanian and Lebanese volunteers, they assist in organizing and preparing distributions of relief items.
CARE helped families in Jordan and Lebanon to prepare for and cope with the cold winter, distributing cash, heaters, fuel vouchers, blankets and floor mats. CARE Egypt has started raising awareness among the refugees of sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence to protect them from any form of abuse.
In Syria, CARE is partnering with local organizations, providing winter clothing and blankets for the winter, in addition to water and sanitation programming. Our support to families affected by the crisis in Syria is based on humanitarian needs alone, no matter which religion, political affiliation or ethnicity people belong to.
* Funding requirements for the Syria Response Plan 2015 equal US$ 2,893,444,593, what has been received so far is US$ 741,449,328. Whereas the funding requirements for the Syria regional refugee and resilience plan (3RP) 2015 equal US$ 4,533,248,258, and what has been received so far is US$ 1,101,750,251.
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