Syria crisis ECHO CRISIS REPORT

Transcription

1 Syria crisis ECHO CRISIS REPORT SYRIA CRISIS SITREP N 19 Period covered 06/01/2013 to 30/01/2013 Time of validity 12:00 (UTC) 1. Map ECHO Field Office Damascus - SYRIA Number of people affected 4 million (OCHA) Number of refugees and/or internally displaced persons (IDPs) 660,000 refugees in neighbouring countries (UNHCR) estimated IDPs: 2 million (OCHA) Number of dead > 60,000 (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ) Number of wounded (source) N/A 2. ECHO Recommendation / action In Syria The activation of the Level 3 emergency response mechanism of the United- Nations (UN) Inter-Agency Standing Committee should mean that the UN setup will be reinforced inside the country and agencies will work under the leadership of a "double-hatted" senior Humanitarian Coordinator. Field missions, such as the recent 3-week joint mission in Homs will need to be followed up on the ground. 30,000 families (150,000 people) have been identified as in need and should be supported without delay. ECHO Emergency Contact Tel.: Fax: echo-mic@ec.europa.eu OCHA is willing to pre-position essential items for 25,000 people to ensure a rapid response capacity. This would be highly useful. Decentralization is also imperative. Following the inter-agency mission in Homs and the confirmation of massive needs, the opening of an office, supported by international staff on the ground is essential. Previous outbursts of violence in July and in December 2012 revealed the limitation of an overly centralised Page 1 of 7

2 Damascus-led set-up. The diversification of implementing partners (110 local NGOs allowed to work with the UN) requires the revision of the assumption that a unique implementing partner could be a guarantee to ensure the coherence of the response and to avoid any duplication of aid. The UN Emergency Directors mission inside Syria has demonstrated the capacity to "cross lines". This needs to be confirmed by the distribution of relief items and the deployment of aid workers in all areas. The success of the planned UN mission to Atmeh in the coming days will test the capacity of Damascusbased aid agencies to provide life-saving activities in all areas. Funding pledged in Kuwait needs to be rapidly channeled to the agencies to: first, secure their pipelines for the months to come, second, to allow them to pre-position essential items for contingency purposes; and third, ensure that they have the necessary capacity (work force and materials) to respond to a possible rapid deterioration of the situation. Tens of thousands of people are stranded in Northern Syria along the Turkish border and in critical need of humanitarian assistance. All efforts should be made to scale up the existing assistance to these populations. Alternatively, they would need to be authorized to cross the border. In Lebanon, with the increasing pace of arrivals, the absorption capacities in terms of provision of assistance and shelter have reached their limit. The complexity of the humanitarian operations that need to constantly scale up the provision of assistance in more than 700 locations, requires that more and more actors be involved in the response. UNHCR and partners need to coordinate aid to non-registered refugees to secure the rapid provision of assistance and to define a strategy to plug the numerous gaps in aid during the critical winter period. Incidents between local communities and refugees are reportedly on the rise. In the absence of a shortterm perspective for the Syrian refugees to return home, the international community should also increase assistance to local communities. In Turkey, the number of Syrian refugees is continuing to rise. Although new camps are under construction, some of the existing camps are becoming over-populated. The Turkish hosting capacity would have to increase rapidly to avoid a further reduction of admissions over the border. In Jordan, the need for solid contingency planning continues to be a priority, especially in view of spikes in the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan (up to 3,600 per night). Enhanced co-ordination is urgently needed. During the recent snow storm when an immediate response was critical, co-ordination between aid agencies and with the security forces was at times insufficient in Zaatari camp. With increasing funding needed to cover the ever-growing needs, it is even more essential to express priorities in a consolidated and holistic manner across all sectors. Support to host communities and refugees living in the urban centres of Jordan should not be overlooked, as the majority of refugees continue to live outside camps. In Iraq, despite the opening of a third camp in Al Qa im, the border crossing into central Iraq remains closed for Syrian refugees (Iraqi returnees can still cross back home via this border point). In the Iraqi Kurdistan, access to the refugee population is not a problem; however, more could be done in terms of assessments and co-ordinated response. Page 2 of 7

3 3. Situation In Syria, intense fighting continued throughout the country and particularly in Idleb, Aleppo, Der Ezzor and Damascus suburbs. Air strikes and mortar shells falling on residential areas in Central Damascus have resulted in many casualties and significant damage. Over the past month, the largest medicine factory in Syria, Tameco, was destroyed. Massive explosions were reported throughout the country, including a particularly deadly attack against Aleppo s University that claimed 82 lives. The continuous degradation of the security environment is also affecting humanitarian operations: over the reporting period, 2 ambulances from the International Federation of the Red-Cross (IFRC)/SARC were hijacked and a UNHCR s warehouse in Aleppo burnt down after being hit by a shell. The situation in Northern Syria is also worsening making humanitarian access even more difficult. The situation of the displaced is deteriorating rapidly with the cold weather. Many are living in makeshift camps along the border and still lack basic winterization support. In Lebanon, 1 refugee out of 3 is waiting to be registered (67,684 out of 221,189). In the absence of an overall coordination mechanism to assist unregistered refugees and newcomers, access to aid remains limited to one-month assistance for a limited number of newcomers and to the support of local charities. In addition to Syrian refugees, 20,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria and 21,000 Lebanese returnees are being reported. The current pace of arrivals exceeds the planning of the UN Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP4) that foresaw 300,000 Syrians refugees in Lebanon by the end of June New estimations are now predicting up to 400,000 by June In Turkey, the number of Syrian refugees (156,800) is constantly increasing. The Government of Turkey continues to implement an open-border policy but at a slower pace: daily admissions into the country have been reduced from 800 in December to 500 in January. At the same time, the situation of the populations on the other side of the border remains critical, considering both their living conditions in a harsh winter and their security environment. New camps are under construction. There is an overpopulation of 40,000 in the existing ones, though the level of assistance has presumably remained sufficient. An estimated 70,000 refugees have settled autonomously in the urban areas in Turkey. They have received very limited assistance and often reach the limit of their resilience capacity. In Jordan, 51,729 out of 213,991 Syrian refugees are waiting to be registered. According to the Government of Jordan (GoJ) there are more than 300,000 Syrian refugees in the country. GoJ has committed to maintaining its open-border policy, stating that a closure of the border would only be a last resort option to avoid the spill-over of the crisis into the Kingdom. However, this appears not to apply to Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria. Almost 40,000 refugees crossed into Jordan in the first four weeks of 2013 alone (UNHCR): this is three times more than in December, four times more than in November. The constantly accelerating influx is an immediate result of the on-going violence inside Syria: more gunfire and injuries are reported among the newcomers. From 8 to 10 January, severe weather conditions across Jordan (including heavy rain, snow and below zero temperatures) significantly exacerbated the situation in Zaatari camp. With many tents flooded and/or collapsed, the situation in the camp became tense. Initially, refugees took over by force the prefabs that had not yet been officially handed over, or those that were being used as offices. Later on families were officially relocated to collective shelters and schools. The situation was volatile on the first day of the cold. Many organisations had to evacuate their staff for security reasons. Save the Page 3 of 7

4 Children reported that 7 of their staff members had been attacked, of whom 4 were seriously injured and hospitalized. This crisis revealed the significant lack of coordination in the camp. In Iraq, with the border point into central Iraq (Al Qa im) remaining closed, the refugee number in central Iraq (Anbar governorate) has stabilized at 8,725 people. The border remains closed although a new, third camp in Al Qa im named Al Ubaidy, is ready to host Syrian refugees. Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG) is hosting 68,415 Syrian refugees of Kurdish origin. While the daily average of Syrian refugees crossing into KRG had dropped during December, the past two weeks have registered an average of 500 people crossing per day. Refugees in KRG continue to enjoy freedom of movement and are allowed to work. The waiting time for registration is 1 week to 10 days: a significant improvement compared to the past year. With the continuous flow of refugees into KRG, the job market in the three governorates of Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah should be monitored as it could soon be saturated, thus generating tensions between host and refugee communities. 4. Aid and assistance required / needs assessment In Syria, the magnitude of the needs was again emphasized by the UN Emergency Directors, following their mission in Talbiseh and Homs. They underlined that humanitarian needs are enormous and that we must find ways to immediately increase the scale of operations". The scarcity of basic commodities has enlarged the needs of the affected people, particularly following the snow storm that has hit the region. Shortages in heating oil, petrol for cars and power cuts have severely affected host and displaced populations and disrupted the delivery of humanitarian aid. While WFP is supporting the efforts of the humanitarian community by providing diesel, difficulties of movement and shortage of gasoline are putting a heavy burden on the population and the response capacity of the aid agencies. While the United Nations deplored that up to 4 million people are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, the SARC is raising this figure to 5.5 million. The capacities of the humanitarian community to reach these people have remained insufficient due to the cumulative effect of security, logistics, administrative and funding constraints. On the Syrian side of the Turkish border, the shelter conditions in the makeshift camps along the border are unsuitable, both because of poor site planning and bad winterization. The estimated number of people waiting to enter into Turkey varies considerably, from between 20,000 (NGOs) to 70,000 (UN-OCHA). To avoid the multiplication of precarious settlements on the Syrian side of the border, the best solution would be for these people to cross the border. In the meantime, however, urgent humanitarian assistance needs to be provided, if possible as close as possible to the area of origin of these people to avoid any pull-factor along the border. In Lebanon, the provision of adequate shelter remains a critical priority. Weaknesses in coordination continue to compromise the completion of an integrated assessment of needs, while the pace of shelter preparedness remains a major element of concern. However, UNHCR has been working with the Government of Lebanon (GoL) to identify transit sites that could temporarily accommodate a large influx of new refugees. UNHCR and partners are also conducting an audit of available private/public buildings that could be quickly upgraded into collective centres. Over the past month UNHCR has directed additional resources to accelerate the registration process: new registration centers are to be opened in the Bekaa and in the South. As of today, delays in the registration process coupled with deficit of assistance for newcomers remain critical concerns. Page 4 of 7

5 In Turkey, it remains essential to increase hosting capacities, to boost the profiling and registration of the unregistered urban refugees as well as of the refugees hosted in camps, to provide basic assistance, and to strengthen coordination. In Jordan, the increased pace of arrival of refugees (up to 3,000 per night) requires more hosting capacities. To date, the camp in Zaatari hosts a theoretical 85,000 people, with the reality being around 60,000. The opening of Zarqa camp (Mreijeb Al-Fhoud), scheduled for 25 January, was delayed. It should host 5,500 people and is expandable to up to 30,000. Another third option, an old camp used for the Iraqi refugees in Al Azraq is also being looked at. Either way, the majority of the refugees is currently living outside camp settings and also need to be supported. In Zaatari camp, the security and management of the camp are becoming serious challenges. Improving the distribution process and limiting long queues in the cold for bread, food, or non-food items assistance, could contribute to easing tensions in the camp. Winterization continues to be urgently needed as weather forecast predicts another cold wave. 5. Local response In Syria, a Ministerial Committee authorized SARC to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees from neighboring countries by providing them with travel documents and accommodation. There has, however, been no sign of any movement of the sort, and such initiatives show the persistent discrepancy between official announcements and realities on the ground - marked by the increasing trend of people fleeing from Syria and seeking refuge in neighboring countries. The recent validation of 110 new local organizations allowed to operate as implementing partners of international aid agencies, should support a renewed effort to reach more vulnerable populations in accessible areas. In Lebanon, the Prime Minister agreed that the Ministry of Social Affairs and UNHCR could set up two transit sites with the capacities to temporarily shelter 5,000 persons each. One site should be opened in the Bekaa, the other in Northern Lebanon. Efforts are ongoing to identify the sites. The opening of such facilities should ensure the provision of assistance and decent and secure temporary living conditions to some of the large number of refugees arriving in the country. In relation to the pledging conference in Kuwait, the Lebanese authorities are working on consolidating their response plan with the RRP 4. In Turkey, in addition to the Government-led response, some local NGOs are supporting urban refugees with food and non-food items. Urban refugees are not allowed to work and do not have the most basic items. In rural areas, the living conditions seem better, due to the possibility of working in the agricultural sector. The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) continues to provide assistance for people inside Syria through 5 zero points established along the Turkish/Syrian border. In Jordan, the Public Security Department (PSD) of the Ministry of the Interior has officially taken over the security administration of Zaatari camp, while the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) has maintained its logistical and camp management role. A similar set-up is planned for the new camp. This will call for greater co-ordination among UNHCR, JHCO and PSD. The Government of Jordan has launched an urgent appeal for 2013 for US$ 449 million, based on a scenario of 660,000 refugees. In spite of its commitment to maintain an open-border policy, the Government of Jordan also refers to the possibility of closing its borders should the situation become unbearable for the stability of the country. Page 5 of 7

6 6. International response Preliminary reports state that the international community pledged between $1.3 and $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid at the High-Level Humanitarian Pledging Conference on Syria which took place in Kuwait city on 30 January. The EU (Member States and European Commission) pledged 272 million/$370 million ( 100 million/$136 million from the European Commission and 172 million/$234 million from Member States). Other large pledges came from the Gulf States (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who each pledged $300 million) and the United States ($ 155 million).the final total pledge and the amount of "fresh" funding is still being calculated. In Syria, The joint UN mission that took place in Homs over almost 3 weeks (3-22 January 2013) revealed the extensive needs (30,000 families extremely vulnerable). No international staff remained behind as authorization to open an office in Homs was not granted. Similar missions are expected to take place in other cities to expand the UN-presence and to establish UN operational hubs in Qamishli, Tartous, and Daraa. Other international actors such as the International Federation of the Red Cross/Crescent or INGOs (such as Première Urgence) are trying to use Tartous as their main operational hub or to set up sub-offices. OCHA is willing to preposition essential items for 25,000 people to be able to respond immediately to any newly-identified needs. An estimated 2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are in immediate need of winterization items, food and clean water. The Syrian Government has approved for 110 local NGOs to work as implementing partners to the UN. The planned assistance mission of the UN to Atmeh, to support the populations stranded at the Turkish border, would be vital to strengthening the ongoing essential but limited humanitarian efforts which are addressing the acute needs of an estimated 20,000-70,000 vulnerable displaced people along the Turkish border. The presence of Under Secretary-General Valerie Amos in Damascus on 27 and 28 January following the activation of the Level 3 emergency mechanism (16 January), and the UN Director s mission inside Syria both prior to the pledging Conference of Kuwait of 30 January, show a persistent will to increase access and boost response capacities. ICRC's recent missions in Idlib and Central Homs are also positive developments that will hopefully open-up access from Damascus to more opposition-held or contested areas. In Lebanon, assistance to registered refugees continues: over the past week 42,000 refugees received winterization supplies (including blankets, heaters, clothes vouchers, fuel coupons). WFP distributed 37,000 food vouchers and 2,000 patients received primary health care. Danish Refugee Council (DRC) provided one month's assistance for newcomers, reaching 25% of the caseload in the Bekaa and over 40% in the North. UNHCR initiated a small partnership with Dar-el- Fatwa to provide mattresses and blankets to newcomers. In Turkey, the authorities allow only limited independent verification or monitoring inside and outside the camps. As of now, WFP has the greatest access to the camps through its e-voucher programme. UNHCR is slowly increasing its monitoring. An assessment of the health services provided in the camps has been undertaken by an inter-agency UN team but a report has yet to be published. In Jordan, UNHCR has initiated a double-shift system that allows the emergency registration of 1,400 urban refugees per day. However there is still only one functioning registration site for refugees in Amman, despite efforts to open an additional one in Irbid. The backlog in registrations has a clear impact on the refugees and the services received; it remains vital that this be addressed. Following the recent storms, Saudi Arabia has contributed US$10 million for emergency assistance for Syrian refugees, providing blankets, mattresses and other basic supplies in addition to 500 MT of Page 6 of 7

7 wheat to Zaatari camp. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also given US$ 5 million in emergency aid in response to the winter weather. Furthermore, prefabricated units continue to be the number one inkind contribution, mainly from Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar; these countries have come forward with pledges for an additional 2,500 caravans. 7. On-site coordination mechanism In Syria, the newly appointed OCHA-Syria management team is an indication of a continuous will to further strengthen coordination mechanisms inside Syria. In addition to supporting good dynamics by strengthening sector and inter-sector coordination mechanisms, this new team should also provide full support to a new senior Humanitarian Coordinator. The multiplication of implementing local actors will require that SARC shifts to a more global approach that would mean more information sharing and support to the coordination process. In Lebanon, UNHCR announced a roll-out of a coordination mechanism for the Syrian refugee crisis. The appointment of an Assistant Representative dedicated to inter-agency coordination supported by sector, is a positive development that should help recognize where there are gaps and the harmonization of responses. The recent arrival of a dedicated emergency coordinator for UNRWA is a positive development. It should improve the coordination of the response to the needs of the newly arriving Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) and promote the definition of "predictable" harmonized assistance to PRS who have been in Lebanon for a while. In Turkey, independent coordination mechanisms are being developed among an increasing number of INGOs present along the border, some of which are already involved in supporting vulnerable populations in Northern Syria. Under the leadership of the Aid Coordination Unit of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (ACU) a needs-assessment carried out in 7 governorates of Syria should shortly be published. Preliminary indications seem to point to a very poor humanitarian coverage in Northern Syria and the necessity to encourage more actors to intervene. The Syrian Opposition Coalition is setting up its Aid Coordination Unit in Rehanly. The Turkish Red Crescent is the main channel for the flow of aid going into Syria from Turkey, and should also participate in the coordination mechanism. 8. Other information DG ECHO and Member States contributions to the civil unrest in Syria Crisis The total EU humanitarian aid until 30 January amounted to 338 million. As indicated above, the EU pledged a total of 272 million at the Kuwait donor conference of 30 January Member States are encouraged to update their contributions in EDRIS accordingly. Page 7 of 7