Syria: 2 million refugess

Submitted by Matthew on 5 February, 2014 - 10:28

The UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) has asked EU states to take 30,000 refugees from Syria.

Up to the end of January, the UK had refused to take any. Home Secretary Theresa May insisted that Tory immigration targets were more important than Syrian lives.

Prompted by pressure from Labour, the government has now agreed to take just 500 refugees. It remains outside the UN scheme which has seen states such as Germany take in 10,000.

The refugee crisis in Syria is becoming even more acute as the exodus from the civil war fast outpaces neighbouring states’ capacity to provide for them. 2.1 million refugees have registered with UN agencies, and hundreds of thousands more are estimated to be living without access to aid.

The week-long “Geneva II” talks on Syria ended on 21 January, with a (predictable) failure to reach any agreement between the government and the opposition.

After coming under severe pressure to attend, and following a fractious debate, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces dropped its precondition that Assad step down before it agreed to talks.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government continued to insist that it was not going “to hand over power to anyone” and the main problem was with “terrorism” — regime short-hand for those who oppose Assad.

A further date has been scheduled for 10 February. There has as yet been no commitment to attend from the Syrian government.

Some small progress was made on local ceasefires to allow some aid to get through.

However, UN aid chief Valeria Amos said that no aid has arrived to relieve the people of Homs, who in some areas of the city have been under siege by Assad’s troops for 18 months.

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