Half a year has passed since Najwa al-Jassem learned that her U.N. aid was being reduced, leaving her scrambling to feed her four children and afford the rent for their tent in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
In better times, she received food rations and cash, which covered most of their modest monthly expenses. Now, they receive $20 monthly, barely covering the rent for their overcrowded tent.
Her husband can only find irregular day labour, and as she explains to The Associated Press from the camp near Bar Elias, her children are too young to work in the fields. Their meals have been reduced to just one a day.
Aid agencies will make another attempt to rekindle global awareness about the suffering of Syrians like al-Jassem during an annual donor conference in Brussels hosted by the European Union to generate humanitarian aid for the Syrian crisis.
This conference comes as Syria’s lengthy unrest-cum-civil-war steps into its 13th year, exacerbated by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in February that brought further chaos. With the World Bank estimating the damage at over $5 billion, the quake wiped out homes and hospitals and further crippled Syria’s already weak power and water infrastructure.
Political uncertainty also looms for refugees residing in adjacent countries. After Syrian President Bashar Assad received a significant political boost with Damascus’s reinstatement to the Arab League, neighbouring countries have pushed for large-scale repatriation of refugees.
Hostility towards refugees has escalated in Lebanon and Turkey, both grappling with economic and political crises. Lebanese officials attribute the country’s economic downturn to the approximately 1.5 million refugees present there and have consequently imposed curfews and rental restrictions on refugees. Recent months have seen hundreds of Syrian refugees deported by the Lebanese military, according to rights groups.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, the repatriation of approximately 3.7 million refugees dominated the discourse in the recent presidential and parliamentary elections that secured President Recep Tayyip Erdogan another term. Erdogan’s government has been building housing developments in northwestern Syria controlled by Ankara-backed Syrian opposition groups to facilitate refugee returns while holding talks with Damascus in Moscow to improve strained relations.
Despite these conditions, many Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon have chosen not to return due to the unpredictable situation.
At the camp in Lebanon, Fteim Al-Janoud, a refugee from Aleppo, explained how she and her husband could only afford to send one of their six children to school. But even this sacrifice seems meaningless when considering the dire conditions back home.
“If the conditions were good and our homes were fixed so we could live peacefully and comfortably, we wouldn’t have a problem going back to Syria, even with Assad still there,” she noted.
Despite these worsening circumstances, aid for Syrians has declined as donors have redirected their support to over 5 million Ukrainian refugees and over 7 million internally displaced people in the conflict-affected European nation. The Ukrainian crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the global economy have strained resources.
Ivo Freijsen, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative to Lebanon, said, “We see needs are increasing, and we also see that donor funding is gradually going down.” He added that from a humanitarian perspective, “more people will be suffering,” and “we need to be seeking to see funding levels stay at the same level and increase.”
Last year, donors at the Brussels conference committed $6.7 billion, falling far short of the U.N.’s $10.5 billion request. This funding shortfall forced hospitals in opposition-held northwestern Syria to reduce services and the U.N. World Food Program to reduce monthly rations.
Imran Riza, Lebanon’s U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, noted, “Ukraine has taken a big toll,” and “Sudan has now become quite a priority.” Given these challenges, he stated that international donors must “move towards much more sustainable interventions.”
Al-Jassem struggles with mounting debts from unpaid rent and medical bills at the Bekaa Valley camp. However, her foremost concern is the welfare of her children, who have lived their entire lives in a refugee camp under deteriorating conditions.
She paints a bleak picture, saying, “The kids sometimes go to school without having breakfast.” When their teacher questions their lack of a packed lunch, she is forced to admit that her pantry is bare.
The Syrian crisis continues to worsen in an ever-changing global landscape, with refugees such as Al-Jassem and Al-Janoud bearing the brunt of the world’s shifting attention. As aid dwindles and conditions deteriorate, the international community must recognize and address the ongoing suffering of Syrian refugees. Sustainable solutions, not just band-aid fixes, are needed to ensure a better future for the Syrian people who have lived in uncertainty and hardship for over a decade. The upcoming donor conference will be an important litmus test for the world’s commitment to this cause.
