Syria - The German government has earmarked EUR 2 million for IOM’s ongoing humanitarian assistance to civilians and migrants affected by the Syrian conflict.

The funding will help save lives and improve conditions of more than 82,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), migrants, refugees and returnees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

The funds will primarily go towards providing emergency non-food relief items (NFIs) to an estimated 14,500 displaced Syrians currently taking refuge at collective centres in public and private buildings across the country. The majority are found in Aleppo, the second largest city, Raqqa and Hassakah in the east, Suweida in the south and Damascus.

The aid is urgently needed as temperatures plummet, placing children, the sick and the elderly at risk. The NFI winterization package includes blankets, quilts, mattresses, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting.

Since mid-September, IOM has expanded its geographical reach to assist IDPs in Suweida and Homs in coordination with seven local partners, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SAR), SOS Children Village, the Orthodox Charitable Organization, Ahl al Sham Initiative and others.

IOM is also rehabilitating three collective shelters including schools and other public and private buildings where people are taking shelter.

The funds will also assist the repatriation of some 530 most vulnerable migrants stranded inside Syria with no means to go home.

Among them are migrants at high risk of human trafficking, the elderly and the sick, and migrants from countries unable to assist their nationals to leave, especially those with no diplomatic representation in Syria.

Their return to their countries of origin is hindered by a host of factors including lack of travel documents, debts owed to recruitment agencies, inability to purchase flight tickets and insecurity around them.

The German funding will facilitate pre-departure health screening, the provision of food, water and medicine in transit areas and air tickets to their countries of origin.

With an overall target of repatriating 450 migrants per month, the project will cover approximately 30 per cent of IOM’s monthly evacuations. The figure is based on current departures which ran at 400-500 people a month during August and September.

Since November 2011, IOM has assisted some 2,552 stranded migrants to return home. They include nationals of the Philippines, Indonesia, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Moldova, Chile, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone and others.

The funds will also enable IOM to put in place preparations for an anticipated influx of migrants across Syria’s borders, as security conditions in the country continue to deteriorate and travel to Damascus becomes less accessible. Damascus airport is currently the only functioning port of embarkation, with Aleppo airport functioning intermittently.

IOM has received in excess of 6,000 requests for evacuation assistance from embassies, governments and individual migrants.

In Jordan, where IOM is the lead agency for transportation of refugees, the funds will assist in providing transport to Syrian refugees arriving at the borders and travelling to Jordan’s Za’atri camp, in addition to providing health checks and TB screening for the refugees. Some 48 per cent of the Syrians arriving in Jordan are female and 19 per cent are children, who walk long distances from various locations in Syria to reach the Jordanian border and are often targeted by the combatants.

To date, IOM in coordination with UNHCR, has facilitated the transportation of some 52,000 Syrian refugees from the Jordanian border to Za’tri camp, some 40 km away, screened some 31,000 and provided another 30,000 with TB awareness instructions.

In Lebanon, where IOM has a leading role in the task force for providing humanitarian assistance to returning Lebanese migrants in the North and the Bekaa Valley, the Organization is also assisting some 15,000 refugees with the distribution of essential items including lighting, mats, mattresses, hygiene kits and winterization kits to cover current gaps in the humanitarian response.

IOM humanitarian work in Syria and the neighbouring countries has been supported by funds from the UK, the US, Switzerland, UNHCR, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and IOM’s emergency fund among others.

For more information, please contact

Mohammed Abdiker
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 93 79
Email: mabdiker@iom.int