Brussels, 22/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Responding to the continuous deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Syria and on its borders, the European Commission announced on Thursday 22 March that it is allocating an additional €7 million to finance life-saving assistance to those who have been wounded or forced to flee the ongoing violence in the country. This brings the overall humanitarian contribution to vulnerable groups in Syria by the Commission to €10 million.
Funding will come from ECHO (the Commission's humanitarian assistance service) and will target the most vulnerable sections of the population, the injured and refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the violence. It will be used to help the tens of thousands of Syrians who have fled beyond the borders to seek protection in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. It will also provide more help to those who have remained in Syria once unimpeded access is possible, as well as humanitarian organisations and ECHO's partners on the ground (the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the victims.
Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, who has repeatedly called for full and independent access for humanitarian workers in accordance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality, reiterated her deepest concerns and called on the Syrian authorities to allow humanitarian workers to deliver assistance to the victims.
In a press release, she stated: “Every day, the situation inside Syria becomes more and more dramatic. One year of escalating violence has caused massive suffering among the Syrian population. Too many civilians have died. Too many families are forced to flee their homes. A large part of the population now experiences shortages of food, fuel and medical care. I am gravely concerned for those who urgently need humanitarian support to survive. It is for their sake that we are boosting our support to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other humanitarian organisations and that we are supporting all initiatives aimed at facilitating urgent humanitarian access. A daily humanitarian truce is absolutely vital in order to provide assistance when people are in most dire need of help.”
Information on the situation on the ground in Syria still remains scarce, due to the severely limited access of humanitarian agencies to the areas where violence is most prevalent. The Commission explains that in these difficult conditions, the first funding decision of €3 million was used to protect medical missions and to give medical assistance to hospitals and medical facilities, as well as for protection to people who had fled their homes and found safety in neighbouring countries. (AN/transl.fl)