US PLEDGES $57.4M TO SUPPORT PALESTINE REFUGEES AFFECTED BY SYRIA CRISIS

Damascus, 13 Jumadil Akhir 1436/2 April 2015 (MINA) – The United States Government pledged a $57.4 million contribution to enable UNRWA to continue aiding Palestinian refugees facing hardship, danger and dislocation because of the ongoing crisis in Syria, UNRWA reported.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl welcomed the donation, saying, “After four years of war and suffering, the living conditions of Palestine refugees affected by the crisis in Syria are in so many ways unbearable. Visiting Syria earlier this month, I saw with my own eyes their sense of despair, dispossession and acute anxiety,” Wafa News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The US State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Anne Richard said, “The United States is committed to doing all it can to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to civilians endangered and uprooted by Syria’s brutal war.”

“UNRWA staff risk their own safety every day to provide a lifeline to Palestinian families that are suffering and in need.”

According to UNRAWA, violence has profoundly affected all 12 Palestine refugee camps and all 560,000 Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA in Syria. It estimated that 95 percent of the 480,000 Palestine refugees remaining in Syria are in continuous need of humanitarian aid. This contribution is expected to provide lifesaving assistance – providing refugees with access to clean water, medicine and food.

A large share of this contribution, $45.4 million, will assist and protect Palestine refugees inside Syria, while an additional $12 million will support 44,000 Palestine refugees from Syria who have fled to Lebanon and 15,000 Palestine refugees who crossed from Syria into Jordan.

The donation is intended to help UNRWA meet emergency needs, and provide basics such as education, health care, protection, and shelter in both countries.

Meanwhile, UNRWA announced an appeal for $415 million to meet the minimum needs of Palestine refugees affected by Syria’s crisis in 2015. The current pledged support for the 2015 UNRWA Syria Emergency Appeal stands at $ 74.6 million, said the international organization.

The United States announced its new contribution on March 31 in Kuwait City at the third annual International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria.

Since the crisis began in 2011, the United States has contributed more than $240 million to UNRWA emergency appeals for Syria, part of the nearly $3.7 billion total provided by the United States to assist those affected by the conflict in Syria over the past four years.(T/P008/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)