Syria crisis: Will donor fatigue push refugees back too soon?
| Amman and Mafraq, Jordan
Yusra Ajaj is facing a life or death decision.
A widowed mother of three,聽Ms. Ajaj聽is considering leaving Jordan, the country she has called home since war consumed her homeland and killed her husband in 2013.
After nearly five years, her life is once again in upheaval. In April, the聽United Nations聽stopped her monthly cash assistance of $210, which she relied upon to pay rent. Then in September, the UN cut her monthly $175聽in聽food vouchers, which she had recently resorted to selling on the black market in order to pay her bills.
Why We Wrote This
Solving a problem on the order of the Syrian refugee crisis requires patience. It's taken years to find ways to support both the displaced families and their host countries, and rebuilding will take time.
Now Ajaj is faced with what she describes as 鈥渢wo worst cases鈥� 鈥� poverty and homelessness in Jordan, or return to Syria. Worse still, she says the decision is being made for her.
鈥淚 fear that the international community is trying to push us back into Syria,鈥� Ajaj says as she enters聽the offices of聽a Jordanian NGO聽in the northern city of Mafraq to ask for cash assistance.
Across Jordan and Lebanon,聽Syrian refugees聽are finding their assistance cut, medical aid suspended, and educational programs axed as international donor fatigue sets in over the Syrian crisis. The UN and聽its聽partner agencies across the Middle East聽are being hit hard.
Yet despite a new push by humanitarian organizations to focus on reconstruction in Syria and encourage refugee returns, UN officials warn that conditions聽there are not yet stable or conducive for a mass return of the 5 million Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries.
Instead, they warn, the cuts in aid will leave tens of thousands of families deep in poverty in host countries unable to support them.
A snowball effect
In late September, the UN鈥檚 refugee agency (UNHCR),聽which has taken the lead聽in providing life-saving and sustaining assistance to 5.6 million Syrian refugees across the Middle East, issued an urgent appeal for $270 million by the end of the month.
If it did not receive these funds, it warned, it would have to suspend services for millions of refugees, including cash assistance to 456,000 vulnerable Syrians in Jordan and Lebanon.
This money聽is used for rent and food, crucial for the 80 percent of Syrian refugees who live in urban areas and not camps and are under the poverty line.
鈥淚f we stop this assistance, then thousands of families cannot pay the rent, and this will create a devastating snowball effect in host communities,鈥� says Stefan Severe, UNHCR鈥檚 Jordan representative.
The shortfall is not a blip, but the latest sign of endemic shortages. As of late September, the entire UNHCR budget for the Syrian crisis of聽$1.97 billion was 35 percent funded for 2018.聽Other UN agencies and its partners face similar deficits.
Funding for聽UNICEF Jordan, which聽supports Jordanian schools and聽educational programs,聽is down significantly even as the number of Syrian students is rising.
鈥淚f funding continues to reduce at this pace, we will continue to make difficult choices and minimize the impact on the most vulnerable children,鈥澛爏ays聽UNICEF Jordan Representative Robert Jenkins. 鈥淏ut we cannot completely protect them.鈥�
Keeping kids in school
One of the first casualties was the聽hajati聽program, under which UNICEF provided $28聽a month聽to vulnerable Syrian students聽to help pay聽for transportation, uniforms, and even shoes to attend school. The program aims to encourage some of the 90,000 Syrian children estimated to be out of school in Jordan to attend class.
The hajati program helped 50,000 Syrian students last school year; because of cuts, UNICEF reduced the number of beneficiaries to 10,000 for 2018/19, after which it is expected to stop altogether.
Also in the crosshairs is聽Makani,聽after-school centers聽that聽provide day-long tutoring, life skills, counseling, remedial education, kindergarten, and safe spaces for Syrian and Jordanian children to play and interact.聽For many, the Makani centers offer their only hope for education.
One such student is聽Mohammed, 15,聽who聽has gone six years without a full semester of school.聽When he was聽nine, his primary school was bombed by Syrian war planes. He fled to Jordan with his mother, uncle, and siblings after his father was killed聽and began four years of bouncing between refugee camps and shared apartments near industrial zones.
Now he聽cannot enter a Jordanian school, and for good reason:聽he聽cannot read or write.聽
鈥淚 just want to be able to read street signs and store signs and maps,鈥� Mohammed says in between remedial classes at a聽Makani聽center. 鈥淚 want to know where I am going in life, and how to get back home鈥�. If I can read and write, I can go to school. And if I go to school, my future will not be lost.鈥�
Mohammed and hundreds of others like him stand to lose out as聽UNICEF has cut聽the number of聽its聽Makani聽centers from 200 across Jordan down to 100 centers this year. The program is in doubt beyond this year.
Syria reconstruction
The funding for these programs in Jordan has diminished as聽several humanitarian organizations that have partnered with the UN聽have begun聽redirecting their priorities away from refugees聽and toward the stabilization of Syria.
The flow of donor interest and funds from refugees to reconstruction has led several NGOs to float tenders for projects within Syria and create new positions for foreigners to head up 鈥淪yria鈥� operations.
鈥淭he new buzzword is 鈥榬econstruction,鈥� and everyone wants a piece of the pie,鈥� an aid worker聽who was not authorized to speak to the press聽says聽on the condition of anonymity. 鈥淩efugees in donors鈥� minds are old news.鈥�
Yet UN officials warn that talk of refugee returns is very premature.
While Jordan saw 17,000 Syrian refugees return to their homeland in 2017,聽the rate聽slowed to 1,770 returns from January 2018 through September聽and聽no verified voluntary returns to Syria since June.
Despite a drive by the Lebanese government to encourage and facilitate its 1 million Syrian聽refugees聽to return home, both a lack of trust on the part of refugees and restrictions by the Syrian government聽have聽limited repatriations to a few thousand.
On the recently reopened聽Jordanian-Syrian border,聽meanwhile, a much publicized restoration of trade and passenger traffic聽has聽triggered a slow but steady trickle of Syrians travelling back to their homeland. Jordanian authorities聽reported that聽108 refugees traveled back to Syria over the first five days the border聽was open.
Too soon to relocate
However, most Syrians traveling at the border聽tell a visiting reporter聽that they聽are聽going for family visits. Relocation, they聽say, is聽still not an option.
鈥淲e are so happy to have the chance to see family we could cry,鈥澛爏ays聽Abu Ahmed, a Syrian heading to Damascus. 鈥淏ut we remain residents of Jordan and will for the future.鈥�
And聽the UN insists that the conditions in Syria are not yet conducive for聽the聽return of millions, many of whom have been targeted by their own government.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to push refugees back into Syria before it and they are ready, and we don鈥檛 want to leave vulnerable Syrians in host countries without vital support,鈥澛爏ays Mr. Severe of聽the UNHCR.
Jordanian聽officials聽recognize that conditions聽are not yet right for聽mass returns; many here fear that the international community will begin to redirect resources away from refugees prematurely, leaving host countries like Jordan and Lebanon聽to carry聽a burden聽that聽some liken to a social 鈥渢ime-bomb.鈥�
Facing the cuts to assistance programs in the cities, thousands of Syrians are already returning to聽under-funded refugee camps in Jordan in search of free shelter and medical care.
UN experts warn the cut in aid could result in thousands of children dropping out of school to work聽and聽a spike in child marriages, crime, human trafficking, and exploitation.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what to do,鈥澛犅爐he widowed Ms. Ajaj says聽after leaving the Jordanian NGO empty-handed, tears forming in her eyes. Unwilling to go back to Syria, unable to live in Jordan, the only answer, she says, may be putting her children on a migrant boat to Europe.
鈥淲e are out of options and out of hope,鈥� she says, wiping her eyes. 鈥淲hat would you do?鈥�
