Thousands of refugees in Jordan return to Syria

The increase in voluntary repatriation comes as food assistance to Syrian refugees in Jordan is being drastically cut.

In a Wednesday report called “Solidarity with Syrians”, the agency said global contributions to Syrians both inside and outside their conflict-stricken country have been “utterly inadequate”. The arrival of tens of thousands of Syrians to Europe’s borders and the shocking deaths of women, children and men on their perilous journey has been a sharp reminder of the tragedy engulfing the people of Syria.

The report is instructive because it breaks down how much each rich and developed country should contribute, based on relative size and economic strength.

What are the consequences of a 56 percent shortfall in aid when the lives of families are at stake?

The family now lives in Zarqa, Jordan, in an apartment that costs them $240 a month-money Ahmed has a hard time scraping together.

Last month, a commentator for the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily told readers that the real reason for the refugee crisis in Europe was none other than “Western powers, ‘ which he blamed for creating havoc and instability around the world in order to export its “so-called democratic system”. But humanitarian funds are in short supply, and no longer enough to cover either the family’s rent or its food needs. Recent aid cuts by underfunded agencies, particularly the World Food Program, have been devastating. It’s a tricky situation because if they continue to educate the Syrian refugees in Turkish or Lebanese, the Syrians run the risk of growing further away from their culture.

“But probably the larger thing is the intent expressed by ISIL and others to say we need to get people in this chain”. By now I should be dead.

“Europe is subject to an increasingly more scathing criticism, and our internal disagreements and mutual recriminations only help our opponents”, he said.

Alluding to the Gulf States which have so far taken in no refugees, despite vociferous criticism of Europe for not doing more, Tusk said: “In fact, they are already doing this”.

Despite common belief among mainland Chinese, Syria was never invaded by USA troops, never bombed before its bloody civil war was well under way and President Barack Obama resisted, until very recently, any sort of active role for the United States in Syria.

Oxfam said the only laudable exceptions to their criticism – besides countries neighboring Syria, which have taken in a majority of refugees – were Norway and Germany. That’s 408,806 people who need a safe place to live. A number of countries, including Greece, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Russian Federation and Slovakia, have refused to accept any Syrians.

Since 2011, the US has resettled just under 1,900 Syrian refugees. The Middle East Refugee Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act (S.2145), which was introduced Tuesday, does not set a specific number of refugees to be resettled in the United States. These officials should be tasked with securing significant improvements in the pace of the USA resettlement program as well as at the Departments of State and Homeland Security to address resettlement processing delays and logjams, and oversee the refugee response.

While Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about whether refugees from Syria will be adequately screened for terror ties, local officials are anxious simply about whether they have the resources to take them.

According to Osborn, 86 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan are living in host communities and on less than $95 per person per month.

The United Nations refugee office did not respond to a request for comment on the Jordan-Syria border. “The bipartisan support of this bill should inspire the Obama Administration to propose a bolder effort to resettle Syrian refugees”, added Acer.

The violence has continued unabated.

Seven and a half million people (more than one-third of Syria’s population) have been displaced, with over four million fleeing into exile. Over the last four and a half years of civil war, approximately 5 million have left the country. The continuous stream of weapons, spare parts, and ammunition is undermining the chance of any political solution to the crisis.