UN NEEDS $2.9BN TO SUPPORT SYRIA REFUGEES IN JORDAN

Amman, 24 Rabi’ul Awwal 1436/15 January 2015 (MINA)– UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres said Wednesday that his agency needed $2.9 billion this year to support Syrian refugees and their host communities in Jordan.

The announcement came during a press conference held by Guterres in Amman, during which he presented a new UNHCR study that provides a grim outlook on the humanitarian conditions faced by Syrian refugees.

The study, based on data from home visits to around 150,000 Syrian refugees living outside refugee camps in Jordan in 2014, warned that a growing number of refugees were sliding into abject poverty.

According to the report’s findings, two thirds of Syrian refugees in Jordan now live below the absolute poverty line ($96 per person per month), while one in six Syrian refugee households lives in abject poverty, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“Unless the international community increases its support for refugees, families will opt for ever more drastic coping strategies,” Guterres said.

“More children will drop out of school to work and more women will be at risk of exploitation, including survival sex,” he added.

Last week, Jordanian authorities transferred several Syrian refugee families from the Al-Zaatari camp, Jordan’s largest camp for Syrian refugees, to another camp in the country’s east due to fears of flooding and heavy rainfall.

Al-Zaatari currently houses over 83,000 Syrian refugees.

Syria has been in the throes of civil war since mid-2011, when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad escalated into an armed insurrection following a violent government crackdown.

Around 1.3 million Syrians currently live in Jordan, according to official data, including 650,000 registered refugees. (T/P010/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)