Help to deal with refugees needed ‘now’

A week after mediated talks to end the war in Syria were due to begin in Geneva, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura finally declared: “The talks have started” following Monday’s meeting with the Saudi-sponsored Syrian opposition delegation.

He had met with the government team on January 29, the day he had fixed after the postponement. On February 2, the government team met with him, but the opposition stayed away, protesting a Syrian army offensive north of Aleppo.

The talks were postponed from January 25 because of the refusal of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee to attend unless its preconditions were met. 

These were that the HNC must be considered the sole representative of the opposition and there must be an end to bombing and blockading of insurgent-held civilian areas, and prisoner releases by the government.

De Mistura, rightly, insisted that participation in the talks should be unconditional.

He said that under UN Security Council Resolution 2254, Syrians must be broadly represented by independent opposition groups, civil society and women’s organisations.

He also declared that he was in no position to halt blockades and bombing or free prisoners. Perhaps in exasperation, de Mistura pointed out that these preconditions had to be tackled by powers involved in the conflict.

By staying away until January 30, HNC won recognition of its position as the “main” opposition group; independents and others have been relegated to the status of advisers and consultants.

Controversial Muhammad Alloush, chief of the politburo of the Saudi-sponsored Army of Islam, based east of Damascus, has been accepted as HNC chief negotiator although he is regarded as a “terrorist” by Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.

Furthermore, under pressure from Turkey, the Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of joint military forces, was excluded from the talks, although these fighters are the most successful against Daesh and enjoy the support of the US.

De Mistura has been compelled to cave in to pressure from the HNC and its backers, distorting the instructions in the Security Council resolution, which also ruled that ceasefires and humanitarian issues should be negotiated in parallel with political issues.

The goal of the political negotiations is the formation of a transitional authority to oversee the drafting of a new constitution and elections.

Hopefully, the consternation in Geneva will not have a negative impact on today’s one-day donors’ conference in London.

The gathering, called “Supporting Syria and the Region”, is hosted by the UN, Britain, Germany, Norway and Kuwait, and will be attended by heads of state and government, including  His Majesty King Abdullah and Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Foreign ministers, non-governmental organisations and business leaders from around the world will also participate.

The conference is being called upon to raise around $9 billion overall for 2016: $7.73 billion for Syrians and $1.23 billion for assistance to regional countries hosting Syrian refugees.

John Ging, operations chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told this correspondent: “I think [the Geneva confusion] will consolidate a realisation that we need to redouble our efforts to provide the humanitarian and other support that Syrians need because there is no easy or quick resolution of this conflict.”

He said humanitarian agencies have designed a new, “unprecedented” strategy to meet the challenge. The strategy involves not only meeting the day-to-day needs in terms of shelter, food and medicine for Syrians.

“We must do more than just keeping them alive. We must also provide for their longer-term needs — education and livelihoods” — and development of the infrastructure of host countries so their citizens will not be denied advancement by the presence of Syrian refugees.

Ging pointed out that there are now 13.5 million Syrians in distress, more than half the country’s population: 4.5 million living as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey; 6 million displaced within Syria; and 3.5 million impoverished by the war.

The refugees constitute one quarter of the population of Lebanon and 13.2 per cent of the population of Jordan.

The situation in Turkey, with 78 million people, is not as dramatic.

Since the Syrian crisis erupted, Ging said humanitarian agencies have had only half the amount of money needed to provide essentials.

“That means we are doing only 50 per cent of what we have identified as the most urgent needs resulting in hunger, loss of life [through lack] of medicine,” and outbreaks of preventable diseases due to inability to vaccinate children.

These deficiencies compound the “suffering of people already in mortal danger, people who have had their lives and livelihoods destroyed” by the conflict.

Ging argued that countries should contribute to the new strategy with donations “commensurate with their wealth. As needs grow we again look to the richest country in the world [the US] to be the most generous”.

As the pressure of millions of Syrian refugee arrivals has created major problems for Jordan, Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, Turkey, their governments have been forced to take steps to halt or reduce the flow.

King Abdullah said in a BBC interview that Jordan is at “boiling point” because of refugee pressure on social services and the economy.

He warned that Jordan could not take in more refugees if the international community fails to come up with the funds needed to provide refugees with essential needs as well as long-term options and development assistance for the Kingdom.

Lebanon’s already creaking infrastructure has been seriously damaged by the presence of refugees, which prompted Beirut to limit the number of Syrians allowed to enter the country.

Only those transiting through the airport, seeking visas and requiring medical treatment are allowed into Lebanon.

Turkey now requires visas for Syrians seeking to enter the country legally, although many still take smugglers’ routes across the Syria-Turkey border.

While Europeans complain about the influx of a million asylum seekers, 600,000 of them Syrians, Syria’s neighbours have finally said enough is enough.

They demand help and demand delivery now, not promises that never materialise as in previous years when donors honoured half or less than the sums pledged.