International Community Asked to Take 180,000 Syrian Refugees

The international community should step up its response to the Syria crisis by accepting 180,000 refugees. That’s the message from an appeal launched Monday by group of more than 30 humanitarian organizations.

The appeal comes ahead of a U.N. pledging conference in Geneva on Dec. 9, AFP reports.

More than 3.2 million refugees who fled Syria in the past three years are registered in neighboring countries but the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) expects that number to grow to more than 3.6 million by the end of 2015.

So far the Gulf states, Russia and China have failed to take a single refugee from Syria and the U.N is calling on these countries to help.

Amnesty International has slammed the global community’s response to the crisis, calling it “shocking.”

“The shortfall in the number of resettlement places for refugees offered by the international community is truly shocking. Nearly 380,000 people have been identified as in need of resettlement by the U.N. refugee agency, yet just a tiny fraction of these people have been offered sanctuary abroad,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, head of refugee and migrants’ rights at Amnesty International.

Turkey and Lebanon each host more than a million refugees but the strain of the crisis is affecting infrastructure and public services. And border restrictions imposed in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have left many refugees trapped in Syria.

“Next week’s pledging conference must be used to turn the tide around. It is time for world governments to take the courageous steps needed to share the responsibility for this crisis and help avert further suffering,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali.

[AFP]