NEW YORK, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – Western nations have only accommodated 5,000 of the three million registered Syrian refugees since the country’s civil war began and should do more to help, Andy Baker from the charity Oxfam told RIA Novosti on Friday.
"As the number of refugees grows, aid is proving insufficient and neighboring countries – such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey – are stretched to breaking point. It is shocking that over three years into a crisis, under the UN refugee resettlement scheme, rich countries have taken in a mere 5,000 of the three million registered refugees who are often struggling to survive from one day to the next," said Baker, who heads the aid group's Syria response.
"The international community should step up its support and work with the UN to quickly offer a life-line to some of the most vulnerable families by giving them a new home. The refugees we work with are desperate to return to rebuild their lives in Syria, but while a political solution to the crisis remains elusive, there is sadly no way that they can."
Peaceful protests that began in Syria in March 2011 quickly descended into all-out fighting between government forces, rebels and jihadists, some of them linked to al-Qaeda. Conflict has claimed more than 190,000 lives and forced as many as three million more to flee their homes.
"Three million refugees is not just another statistic. It is a searing indictment of our collective failure to end the war in Syria," said Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress and envoy for the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR.
"UN Security Council Resolutions are being ignored; war crimes are being committed on a daily basis; regional countries are staggering under the human burden; and Syrian refugees are dying in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to reach Europe."
