Originally published on the CGS blog on December 10, 2014.
Since the start of the horrendous civil war attempting to overthrow President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, the neighbors of Syria—Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey in particular—have seen endless lines of refugees cross their borders seeking safety. Many travel night and day to reach these countries. Their faces tell the story of war; fatigued, exhausted, broken, these refugees arrive in overcrowded camps that are unprepared to deal with the vast numbers of people fleeing Syria.
What is heartbreaking is that many of these refugees will be left without the aid needed to deal with the hurdles and challenges that they had overcome to get to these camps.
On December 1, 2014, the World Food Programme (WFP), a subsidiary agency of the United Nations and the world’s largest humanitarian agency geared toward fighting hunger, announced that it was going to cut aid to Syrian refugees due to a lack of funding. Earlier this year, the organization reduced food rations to those in need and has stated that many may not receive any food due to the fighting in Syria. The cuts are expected to hurt as many as 1.7 million Syrian refugees.
Refugees crossing the borders will be forced to make do with already strained resources and government services. An estimated 3.2 million Syrians have fled the country and another 7.6 million are displaced. Countries such as Lebanon, with a population of 4.4 million, have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of refugees, taking in nearly 1.1 million Syrians. The mass influx proves to be problematic for regional governments, as many are now reducing the flow of refugees or closing their borders.
With a $64 million shortfall, the WFP asserts that families will suffer as its voucher assistance program to help families purchase food goes unfunded.
The lack of funding for the World Food Programme and its mission for Syrians can have disastrous effects not only for Syrian families, but for host countries as well. While describing the effects of the suspension in food aid, Director Ertharin Cousin stated,
A suspension of WFP food assistance will endanger the health and safety of these refugees and potentially cause further tensions, instability, and insecurity in the neighboring host countries.
With the Syrian Civil War spreading into neighboring Iraq, it is essential that the global community respond quickly to this call from the World Food Programme and help provide resources and food to the refugees. If nations and donors fail to provide aid and WFP funding is not reinstated, millions of refugees will be left vulnerable and new conflicts may emerge.
