New wave of refugees possible due to cuts in UN aid

[muriel_volestrangler]

International aid to Syrian refugees is drying up. The emergency could mean that soon more and more longterm refugees living in Arab transit countries will come to Europe.

Syrians living in Lebanese refugee camps are in a precarious situation. Since the start of the civil war five years ago, more than 1.5 million of them have fled to the small neighboring state. But that number only refers to those who have officially registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Inofficial numbers are said to be much higher. Half of the Syrians live in some 1,700 makeshift tent camps spread across Lebanon. Among them, smaller and larger encampments, but also abandoned building sites and garages. Few of them have sufficient water and electricity. Residents often have to trek several kilometers to the next village to get food and other necessities.

So far, the Lebanese government has resisted erecting centrally organized refugee camps. They are simply too scared that history will repeat itself: "The Lebanese government fears that Syrian refugees may never go back home, much like the Palestinians that fled to Lebanon 67 years ago. And, since most of the Syrians are Sunnis, it could upset the delicate balance of Christians, Sunnis and Shiites living in the country," says Maha Yahya, an expert on Lebanon from the Carnegie Middle East Center, a policy research institute.

Lebanon is clearly overwhelmed with the continuing refugee crisis. Currently, one in every four people in the country of four million, is a refugee. That has had a negative impact on the country's already weak economy and infrastructure. Food prices are rising, water and electricity are strictly rationed, and the security situation is fragile.

Since the Syrians receive hardly any assistance from the Lebanese government, they are dependent upon aid from international donors. However, UN aid packages are shrinking. Due to a lack of funds, the UN World Food Program (WFP) has reduced food aid to refugees inside and outside of Syria. That means that now, a refugee living in Lebanon receives $13 (€11.50) a month to feed themself. The WFP says it is 80 percent underfunded for 2015.

http://www.dw.com/en/new-wave-of-refugees-possible-due-to-cuts-in-un-aid/a-18710185

Aid cuts driving Jordan's Syrian refugees to risk all

Her doting father, Mounib Zakiya, plans to take his children and grandchildren from the Jordanian capital to the Turkish coast, to be smuggled into Europe.
He says he is leaving Amman, after three years, for one reason - his meagre aid has been cut off.
...
For months the World Food Programme (WFP) has been cutting aid to the bone due to a lack of donations. It reduced the monthly stipend for about 211,000 Syrians by half.

At the beginning of September it went further. Almost 230,000 Syrian refugees - living in cities, not camps - had their aid stopped entirely. Help is still being provided for 100,000 living in camps, but there, too, funds could run out in November.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34196629

This is a clusterfuck. These are people who would stay put, if we could just get food and other basics to them. The World Food Programme should have been shaming governments in the media for months to get the needed resources.

[Sunlei]

1. It is a clusterfuck. The world bank could turn over Assads entire empire to the UN to care for these

refugees, back in Syria if they can get rid of Assad before he and Russia start to purge the rest of the Syrian people.

[Igel]

2. And this helps explain what changed.

Suddenly there's a wave of refugees. No new major fighting. No mass outbreak of disease. Nothing's much changed on the ground, but there's a mass movemenet of population.

Lebanon's cracking down. No word on Jordan or Turkey.

Aid's drying up.

It's been years, and all the men with their families are tired of waiting for things to settle down in Syria. Or, rather, for others to get things settled down so they can return to their home country.

And there was the African refugee business in the spring, in which the world was shown that if you show up on Europe's shores you'll be welcomed, fed, housed, etc., in better conditions. Heck, just get on the high seas and you'll be rescued. Why go back and fight when there's a better option? They even saw how to do the PR, consciously or not.

You look at the refugees from afar and you see mostly men. You look at them up close and you see men with wives, men with children, men with families. Nobody wants to interview all the men who've abandoned their families until they get asylum or refugee status and can send for their families. You also don't see them rushing for Iran or Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Georgia or Russia or India. You do find that many of the destitute and those suddenly forced from their homes spent thousands of dollars (or their equivalent) for passage to where they'll be treated the best and have the most lenient conditions for their status.

If you don't like the laws in the country you hope will take you in, feed you, shelter you, and let you send for the rest of your family, ignore them. Otherwise there's nothing to forgive.