A glance at which countries are pledging what for Syrian

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that 10,000 Syrian refugees were waiting to cross into Turkey from Syria at the Bab Al-Salam border crossing near Kilis.

The London conference agreed to provide the necessary funds to ensure that all refugee children will be receiving a quality education by the end of the 2016/17 school year.

There are 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria, while the war has created 4.59 million refugees and resulted in the deaths of over 250 thousand people. Germany pledged 2.3 billion euros ($3.5 billion Cdn) in humanitarian aid through 2018, including 1.2 billion euros ($1.8 billion Cdn) this year.

Roughly 4.6 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

In January, Turkey introduced visa requirements for Syrians arriving by air and sea, forcing hundreds of Syrians to return to Damascus.

“The commitment of countries hosting large numbers of refugees to open up their labour markets is a breakthrough”.

Fadi Hallisso, co-founder of Basmeh and Zeitooneh (Smile and Olive) which works with refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, stressed the importance of protecting Syrians as a priority.

Germany’s pledge is about $2.69 billion; Britain’s about $1.7 billion.

With no end in sight to the civil war in Syria, high-level representatives from 70 countries will gather in London on Thursday to debate how millions of Syrians can be kept safe, while preventing people from attempting to make risky journeys overseas to Europe.

Just hours before the conference, peace talks aimed at securing a ceasefire were suspended and rescheduled for late February.

“As a result there will be over 1 million new jobs in the region for refugees and residents alike”, he said.

Addressing the summit, US Secretary of State Kerry said $600 million (537 million euros) in new funding would go on urgent aid to refugees and beleaguered populations in and around Syria.

Past aid conferences for Syria have failed to raise more than half of the target set by the global community.

The gathering has been overshadowed by the suspension of peace talks in Geneva and intense fighting on the ground.

Kerry implored the dozens of other countries attending the conference to give more to what he called a “staggering” humanitarian crisis.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said the talks were “undermined by the continuous lack of sufficient humanitarian access, and by a sudden increase of aerial bombings and military activities within Syria”.

The exodus began on Monday after government forces began an operation that has severed the main rebel supply route into the city and broken an opposition siege on two regime-held towns, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“We have a constant suspicious attitude towards the way the global community has dealt with the displaced [Syrians]… but we will see if the [London] conference will bring a new approach to this issue”, said Bassil.