Blog 11: Syria Refugee Spillover Causing Major Burdens For Neighboring Countries

According to a recent report, the US state Department is beginning to step up its efforts in assisting Syrian refugees who have spilled out into neighboring countries over the past year. It states that it is doubling the levels of humanitarian assistance to the region, however, most of that additional funding seems to be directed to programs inside of Syria or towards efforts to deliver aid and non-lethal supplies to the civilian opposition there, rather than to refugees and their host countries.
The many countries bearing the overflow of refugees are places like Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, surprisingly enough, and Turkey. The State Department is finding it hard to keep track of the number of Syrian refugees as so many are unable to be documented. 50k Syrians has been estimated to have fled the country as refugee and over 300k have been internally forced from their homes. The refugee crisis has been exacerbated by local politics and sectarian tensions, as officials who are supportive of the Syrian regime state that these refugees are criminals and terrorists, calling for them to be deported, and sparking a tense debate in the country’s legislature.
As we have seen in many of these cases, many officials in host countries are stating that the influx of refugees, including many that have been badly wounded, are causing a significant strain on their welfare programs. Despite Syria once being the home of over 100k Iraqis who had been displaced by the war, Iraq is now becoming a “safe haven” for Syrian refugees, many of whom have spread throughout the country and are receiving little to no humanitarian assistance. In this case, we are seeing many poor countries bearing the blow of the influx of refugees and whose economies aren’t able to handle.
Many UN organizations and refugee aid groups are said to be taking field missions to the camps of refugees and have expressed displeasure towards the Turkish government’s decision to count the refugees as guests rather than refugees, as the country bornes the fullest brunt because it shares a border with Syria. The migration, immigration, and refugee crisis we are seeing all over the world are causing huge issues on the world economy making it hard for countries to assist each other, creating tensions, and falling to disparity.
The report even states that The High Relief Commission is basically out of money and no one else is taking care of the Syrian issue. Unfortunately, despite the attempts in the UN’s mission for peace keeping and building, tensions are running high all over the world, as conflicts is displacing people everywhere, economies are falling, laws towards migration are changing, making the process for building a global economy hard for everyone. 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/syria-refugees-state-department_n_1406410.html