Geneva, Mar. 22, (dpa/GNA) – The overshadowing of Syria’s humanitarian crisis by wars in Ukraine, Gaza and other parts of the world can have grave spillover effects, a senior United Nations official warned on Friday.
The imbalance of attention not only threatens the lives of people in Syria, but is fuelling desperate migration towards Europe across the seas, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Damascus.
The number of Syrian asylum seekers in Europe had already risen by 38% year-on-year to around 181,000 in 2023, he said.
“Today we are facing an unprecedented situation, one that we can’t afford to ignore,” Abdelmoula said of the crisis in Syria, where 16.7 million people now need humanitarian assistance, up from 14.6 million in 2022.
Disintegration of the country is a real threat and migration will only increase significantly if the world community cannot meet the needs of people within the country, he stressed.
Donor countries should provide more humanitarian aid, as this is cheaper than providing for asylum seekers, he said.
The UN has urgently asked for more money for its Syrian programmes. The appeal for donations of $4.07 billion (€3.76 billion) for 2024 had only been 0.02% covered by the start of March, according to Abdelmoula.
Apart from the ongoing fighting and the devastating earthquake in February 2023, Syria has been hit hard by the climate crisis, with heat above 40 degrees Celsius and dwindling rainfall, he noted. Families are having to skip meals or go without medication to buy food for their children due to severe poverty.
The Gaza war, Syria’s ongoing civil war after 13 years and Israeli strikes on Syrian territory have burdened the country, Abdelmoula said.