Jordan pleads with EU over solution to Syrian refugees
While global aid to Syrian refugees is dropping, Jordan pleads with the international community to do something to break the deadlock to returning them to Syria, according to the New Arab and agencies on May 27th.
The call was made during a conference where the EU pledged to give more than 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to support displaced Syrians, while standing by its policy of not wanting them to return to Syria due to instability under the regime of Assad.
In other countries which host them, like Lebanon for example, the pressure is mounting on governments to deport them.
READ: Syria’s humanitarian crisis still a concern of Arab League
Before an EU-led donor conference on the 13-year-old war, Jordan’s foreign minister said that the international community was abandoning Syrian refugees as funding to support them in host countries dwindles, suggesting that ways had to be found to ease voluntary returns to Syria. The 8th Syria conference will bring together European and Arab ministers along with key international organisations, but diplomats said that beyond vague promises and financial pledges, there are few signs that Europe can take the lead.
The EU conference aims to keep the war on the agenda, as well as support for the millions of refugees it has created. However, as the economic and social burden on neighbouring countries mounts, the bloc is divided and unable to find solutions, diplomats say.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in his last few days in office as he reaches the end of his five year term, made this clear at the start of the conference.
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“While the European Union would wish that returning home could be a realistic option for all refugees, everywhere and always, we concur with the United Nations system that currently the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns to Syria are not in place,” Borrell said.
“We insist that it is the Assad regime that bears the primary responsibility for putting in place these conditions.”
Borrell said the bloc pledged 560 million euros in 2024 and 2025 to support refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan and 1 billion dollars for Turkey.
New Arab/agencies
