A new report from Amnesty International throws the spotlight on the human face of Syria’s refugee crisis, through the stories of eight people and families who have fled the conflict and are struggling to survive in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
Hardship, Hope and Resettlement: Refugees from Syria tell their stories highlights the life-changing opportunity that international resettlement can offer to some of the most vulnerable refugees. Its publication marks the launch of Amnesty International’s#OpenToSyria campaign.
The campaign aims to put pressure on wealthy countries, through public support, to accept a greater numbers of vulnerable refugees from Syria through resettlement and other humanitarian admission programmes. So far, the international response to the crisis has been pitiful and some of the richest countries have done very little.
“With close to 4 million refugees, the scale of the crisis is overwhelming. This report tells the stories of the real people behind the numbers, in their own words,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Amnesty International’s Head of Refugee and Migrants’ Rights.
Background
More than 190,000 people have lost their lives and more than 11 million have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in Syria. Around 7.6 million people have been displaced within Syria and 4 million have fled the country.
Around 95% of refugees from Syria – 3.8 million people- are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has identified 380,000 refugees in those countries as in need of resettlement. So far however just 79,180 resettlement places have been offered globally by wealthier countries, a fifth of what is needed.
Read the full article here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/02/untold-stories-syria-s-most-vulnerable-refugees/
