Syria - IOM is appealing for an additional USD 35.6 million to continue providing a range of life-saving emergency humanitarian aid inside Syria and in neighbouring countries for the next six months.

The funding will go towards strengthening IOM’s on-going emergency repatriation of stranded vulnerable migrant workers and their families, providing emergency transportation for refugees and distributing emergency shelter and non-food relief items to Syrian civilians caught up in the conflict.  

The funds will also be used to provide health care services to evacuated migrants and refugees in Jordan, including the screening for communicable diseases.

In Iraq and Lebanon, the funds will provide emergency livelihood support, including on-the-job and vocational skills training for up to 110,000 individuals to increase their self-resilience.   

Current winter conditions in Syria are increasing the vulnerability and suffering of civilians caught up in the conflict, with expecting and lactating women, children, the elderly and the sick particularly at risk.  

Also at risk are stranded migrant workers from tropical countries who have been forced to move repeatedly and depend on often overstretched Syrian families.
 
IOM has already identified some 6,800 migrant workers who remain stranded in precarious circumstance and are in urgent need of repatriation assistance. To date, IOM, working closely with UNHCR and local partners, has assisted 3,200 migrant workers from 35 different countries and their families, to safely return to their countries.
 
IOM in Jordan has also so far assisted some 70,000 Syrian refugees from the border to the Za’tari camp, located some 40 km inland.

According to UNHCR, some 600,000 Syrians have taken refuge in neighbouring countries with a projection of 1.1 million by the end of 2013. Inside Syria, an estimated 2 million persons are displaced and are now dependent on the international and national organizations for food, medicines and shelter.

IOM’s humanitarian work in Syria and the neighbouring countries has received financial support from the UK, the US, Switzerland, UNHCR, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and IOM’s emergency fund among others. This new appeal builds on a USD 20.7 million appeal launched in September 2012.  

For more information please contact

Donor Relations Division
IOM Headquarters
Tel: +41 22 717 9271
Email:drd@iom.int