UNHCR joins push to end suffering in Syria

News Stories, 21 January 2016

© UNHCR/B.Diab
A man and a young boy walk along a ruined street in Homs, Syria.

GENEVA, Jan 21 (UNHCR) – More than 100 UN and other humanitarian organizations have together issued a powerful joint appeal today, urging people around the world to raise their voices and call for an end to the Syria crisis and to the suffering endured by millions of civilians.

High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is one of several humanitarian agency chiefs adding his voice to the campaign. Others include the heads of UNICEF, OCHA, WFP, IOM, OCHA, Norwegian Refugee Council, and others.

The appeal outlines a series of immediate, practical steps that can improve humanitarian access and the delivery of aid to those in need inside Syria, where the war is approaching its sixth brutal year.

The appeal seeks unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarian organizations to bring immediate relief to all those in need inside Syria.

It also calls for humanitarian pauses and unconditional, monitored ceasefires to allow food and other urgent assistance to be delivered to civilians, vaccinations and other health campaigns, and for children to return to school.

The push asks for a cessation of attacks on civilian infrastructure – so that schools and hospitals and water supplies are kept safe.

Additionally, it seeks freedom of movement for all civilians and the immediate lifting of all sieges by all parties.

Members of the public can add their support to the appeal themselves, simply by sharing it, retweeting it or liking it on social media platforms. The organizations involved in the appeal will also be carrying it on their social media channels.

Here is a link to the full text of the appeal.

• DONATE NOW •

 

• GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

Related stories by:

UNHCR country pages

UNHCR Jordan Overview

UNHCR Jordan Year in Review 2014

Jordan Operational Update

UNHCR Lebanon Fact Sheet

UNHCR Syria In Focus newsletter

Syria Crisis: The biggest humanitarian emergency of our era

over 4 million Syrians are now refugees


Donate now

UNHCR Syria: A Year in Review 2013

2008 Nansen Refugee Award

The UN refugee agency has named the British coordinator of a UN-run mine clearance programme in southern Lebanon and his civilian staff, including almost 1,000 Lebanese mine clearers, as the winners of the 2008 Nansen Refugee Award.

Christopher Clark, a former officer with the British armed forces, became manager of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre-South Lebanon (UNMACC-SL) n 2003. His teams have detected and destroyed tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and tens of thousands of mines. This includes almost 145,000 submunitions (bomblets from cluster-bombs) found in southern Lebanon since the five-week war of mid-2006.

Their work helped enable the return home of almost 1 million Lebanese uprooted by the conflict. But there has been a cost – 13 mine clearers have been killed, while a further 38 have suffered cluster-bomb injuries since 2006. Southern Lebanon is once more thriving with life and industry, while the process of reconstruction continues apace thanks, in large part, to the work of the 2008 Nansen Award winners.

2008 Nansen Refugee Award

Muazzez Ersoy

Muazzez Ersoy

Lebanese Returnees Receive Aid

UNHCR started distributing emergency relief aid in devastated southern Lebanese villages in the second half of August. Items such as tents, plastic sheeting and blankets are being distributed to the most vulnerable. UNHCR supplies are being taken from stockpiles in Beirut, Sidon and Tyre and continue to arrive in Lebanon by air, sea and road.

Although 90 percent of the displaced returned within days of the August 14 ceasefire, many Lebanese have been unable to move back into their homes and have been staying with family or in shelters, while a few thousand have remained in Syria.

Since the crisis began in mid-July, UNHCR has moved 1,553 tons of supplies into Syria and Lebanon for the victims of the fighting. That has included nearly 15,000 tents, 154,510 blankets, 53,633 mattresses and 13,474 kitchen sets. The refugee agency has imported five trucks and 15 more are en route.

Posted on 29 August 2006

Lebanese Returnees Receive Aid

Za'atari oldest manPlay video

Za'atari oldest man

At 113, Yousef is a very old man. Until conflict forced him to flee Syria two years ago, his life was spent peacefully with his farm, his shop, his three children and 160 descendants nearby. Now, he is perhaps the oldest resident of Za'aatri refugee camp in Jordan. "He was sad when we told him we wanted to leave," says his daughter Nejmeh. "He tells me he wants to go back to Syria…He made me promise, if he dies, to bury him in Syria."
United Kingdom: High Commissioner calls for more funding for Syrian Refugees Play video

United Kingdom: High Commissioner calls for more funding for Syrian Refugees

Speaking at the London Syria Conference, the head of the UN Refugee Agency Filippo Grandi called for a significant increase in pledges to offer much-needed stability, opportunities and hope to Syrian refugees, who are becoming more vulnerable as a brutal war has raged for five years
Lebanon: Newborn Boy Spends First Winter In A WarehousePlay video

Lebanon: Newborn Boy Spends First Winter In A Warehouse

Just ten days old, Syrian infant Mohammed is already experiencing the harshness of refugee life. Living with his family in a warehouse without furniture, natural light or permanent heat, he is already battling his first cold.