Brussels, 01/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 1 December, the European Commission announced the disbursement of €410 million for Syrian refugees.
The first aid package of €350 million - from the Trust Fund for Syria - will provide emergency aid to 1.5 million refugees and host communities in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. The funding consists of four different programmes. The first, on education, for €140 million will enable a further 172,000 children to be registered in schools in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and will enable accelerated learning programmes to be offered, as well as non-formal education and early childhood education and child protection activities to 587,000 school-age children and teenagers who are currently out of school.
The second programme - on resilience and local development - for €130 million, should enable economic opportunities to be improved for refugees and host communities. This programme will target over 200 host communities and 400,000 people in the region, tackling the basic financial needs of vulnerable families, a lack of work for young people, skills development, the involvement of the community in the preparation for a future return to Syria, and the easing of tension between the host communities and the refugees.
The third programme - on health - for €55 million, will focus on widening and enhancing refugees' access to health care and psycho-social support, and on protection from sexual and gender-based violence. It is expected that 700,000 people will be helped in Turkey and Lebanon, and specific support is planned in northern Iraq.
The fourth programme - on water, sanitation and hygiene - for €25 million, will focus on up to a million refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon.
Commission disburses last tranche of the €200 million promised in September. The second aid package announced on Tuesday 1 December is the final tranche of the €200 million in humanitarian aid announced by the Commission in September, in response to the crisis in Syria and for Iraq (see EUROPE 11395). Out of the €60 million, €40 million will go to Iraq to provide assistance both to the most vulnerable Iraqis displaced inside their country and to Syrian refugees in the country, by providing them with basic food, protection, health services, water, sanitation and hygiene items. The remaining €20 million is expected to help vulnerable refugees who have fled Syria and Iraq for Turkey - especially those who live outside camps. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)