AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CRITICISES WORLD FAILURE TO DEAL WITH SYRIAN REFUGEES ‘SHAMEFUL’

Damascus, 14 Shafar 1436 /7 December 2014 (MINA) – A report by human rights organisation Amnesty International criticised on Friday the failure of the international community to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis.

In the report, which was published on its official website, Amnesty International said: “World leaders are failing to offer protection to Syria’s most vulnerable refugees with catastrophic consequences,” Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The organisation’s report titled “Left Out in the Cold: Syrian refugees abandoned by the international community,” highlights the pitiful numbers of resettlement places offered by the international community.

Around 3.8 million refugees from Syria are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Only 1.7 per cent of this number has been offered sanctuary by the rest of the world since the crisis began more than three years ago.

The Gulf States, which include some of the world’s wealthiest countries, have not offered to take a single refugee from Syria so far.

Russia and China have similarly failed to pledge a single resettlement place. Excluding Germany, the rest of the European Union has pledged to resettle a paltry 0.17 per cent of refugees in the main host countries.

“The shortfall in the number of resettlement places for refugees offered by the international community is truly shocking,” Amnesty International’s Head of Refugee and Migrants’ Rights Sherif Elsayed-Ali said.

“Nearly 380,000 people have been identified as in need of resettlement by the UN refugee agency, yet just a tiny fraction of these people have been offered sanctuary abroad,” said Elsayed-Ali.

The organisation stated, “The lack of international support has had disastrous consequences with the five main host countries, who are currently hosting at least 95 per cent of Syria’s refugees, seriously struggling to cope.

“Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have imposed severe restrictions on the entry of refugees in recent months leaving many trapped in Syria at serious risk of abuses by government forces or at the hands of the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) and other armed groups.” (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)