21 December 2012
DFID Humanitarian Advisor Philip Upson reports from the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey where winter is setting in and making life harder for the tens of thousands who have fled the violence in Syria.
It is now snowing in Ankara, Turkey, where I work for the Department for International Development. I have been working on the Syria Crisis Team since March this year, helping to implement the UK’s humanitarian aid programme, which has just been increased by £15 million to £68.5 million.
My job is to help ensure that UK aid is getting to the over 140,000 Syrian refugees who have fled their war-torn homeland for refugee camps in Turkey. The violence in Syria has worsened dramatically over the autumn and peoples’ needs are increasing rapidly as the year ends. The winter here has brought rain and snow. At night the temperatures drop below freezing. This will have serious implications for those left in Syria, who are suffering from power and fuel shortages as well as shortages of flour and bread. UK aid is bringing relief to many thousands of people, but providing this in a complex war zone is extremely difficult.
Conditions in the 13 camps in Turkey are some of the best I have ever seen in refugee and displaced situations around the world, though being a refugee anywhere in whatever conditions always brings hardship. The Turkish government has worked hard to provide this high level of support and has even provided short honeymoon for newly married Syrian refugees. However, people are still suffering from the trauma they have experienced in Syria; have an uncertain future and have constant daily reminders of the horrors of the war through contacts with the media and friends and family left behind.
UK aid is helping to make a difference. One of the UK’s key implementing partners across the region and in Turkey, the World Food Programme, is providing access to food through shop based electronic cards in Turkey, so that refugee families can buy their own choice of food. The UK is supporting the Turkish Red Crescent to provide blankets, winter tarpaulins and heaters. Conditions generally are good, but we need to continue to provide this support, particularly for those feeling the harsh effects of winter in the higher altitude camps. Through our regional support to the UNHCR the UN refugee agency we have also helped provide shelter materials such as tents and blankets as well as protection activities; UNHCR plan to expand these activities over the coming months.
Over half a million refugees are now in need of assistance in the countries surrounding Syria, and the number is rising on a daily basis. On average 800 Syrians gain refuge in Turkey daily and many more wait at the borders, in difficult conditions, waiting for their turn to enter. Inside Syria itself, there are an estimated 4 million people in need, 2 million of whom have been forced to flee their homes for other areas of the country, and many who are at their wits end, with resources depleted, will continue to seek refuge in neighbouring countries such as Turkey.
On 19 December the UN launched their revised appeals for humanitarian aid in Syria and the neighbouring countries, totalling $1.5 billion - the largest short term humanitarian appeal ever. The refugees are now stoic but they plead for any assistance they can get to stop the brutal war, and to support their friends and relatives suffering in Syria.