Thu, Dec 11, 2014 page6

• Syrian resettlement spots double

  CALLING ON EUROPE: Germany said more action is required from other European nations, while the US said it was considering about 9,000 applications each month

  • NY Times News Service, GENEVA, Switzerland
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  The UN refugee agency on Tuesday said that the number of Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement in third countries would more than double as a result of commitments given by governments at a “pledging conference” in Geneva, although its tally fell well short of its own target and even further behind its estimate of those who need resettlement.

  UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said after the meeting that he was “very happy” with the outcome of the conference, in which 28 countries made firm commitments to accept 66,254 Syrian refugees and 11 other countries said they were exploring options or preparing to expand existing programs. That brings the refugee agency’s estimate of the total number of resettlement places being offered to more than 100,000.

  Guterres said countries had offered only 40,000 places for Syrians so far this year, adding: “We are confident we have clearly more than doubled” the number of resettlement places available.

  However, the commitments do little to ease the strain on countries neighboring Syria. They are providing refuge to 3.2 million people registered as refugees with the UN and hundreds of thousands more who have not registered, putting huge pressure on hospitals, schools, housing, water resources and jobs.

  In Jordan, which says that about 1.4 million Syrians are living within its borders, local people “are beginning to voice frustration,” Jordanian Minister of the Interior Hussein Majali told the conference.

  Frustration appears to be growing among the refugees themselves. The total number accepted for resettlement since the start of the conflict in 2011 is just under 191,000, and in the past six months there has been a sharp increase in the number of Syrians risking dangerous journeys by boat across the Mediterranean in attempts to reach Europe.

  The refugee agency has called on countries to accept 130,000 Syrians next year and in 2016, and Guterres said that more than 300,000 Syrians had to be resettled for health or other reasons. Some of them are ill or have experienced trauma in the conflict. Others simply cannot return in safety to Syria, even when the civil war eventually ends.

  The commitments made in the conference represented “an excellent interim result,” Guterres said, but added that they were the beginning, not the end, of the process.

  Germany, which has accepted 80,000 Syrians for resettlement — more than any other country — held back from making an immediate pledge to expand its program, instead voicing some impatience over the lack of action from other European countries.

  “We need a Europe-wide campaign in which all European countries shoulder their fair share of responsibility,” German Secretary of State Emily Haber told the meeting.

  Britain, where the government faces growing public hostility to immigration, said it believed its response to Syria’s crisis was “best targeted on providing substantial humanitarian aid.”

  The US and Canada have taken in a total of about 5,350 Syrian refugees, but US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard told the gathering that the US was considering about 9,000 resettlement applications and receiving about 1,000 new cases every month.

  “We expect admissions from Syria to surge in 2015 and beyond,” Richard said.
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