Greening: Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Jordan as UK pledges new support for Syria crisis
International Development Secretary announces additional £100 million assistance during visit to Zaatari refugee camp with Prince of Wales.
Justine Greening and The Prince of Wales at a WFP supermarket in the Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan. Picture: WFP/Joelle Eid
Britain will stand shoulder to shoulder with Jordan as the country continues to play a pivotal role promoting stability in the region, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said today as she announced a further £100 million of assistance for the Syrian crisis.
The International Development Secretary made the commitment during a visit to Jordan with HRH The Prince of Wales almost four years since the conflict in neighbouring Syria began. During the visit they met Jordan’s King Abdullah II and visited UK-funded projects in the Za’atari refugee camp.
More than 600,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan since the start of the conflict and now make up almost 10 per cent of Jordan’s population. The Za’atari camp alone hosts 80,000 people.
The new support will help host communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq deal with the extra pressures they face from the number of refugees fleeing across the borders from Syria. It will also support people affected by fighting inside Syria by providing food, medical care and relief items.
Justine Greening and The Prince of Wales visited a UNICEF youth centre helping children deal with the trauma they have experienced due to the conflict, as well as a World Food Programme supermarket.
They also visited a school in Za’atari village which has doubled in size since the start of the crisis and a football pitch built to help ease tensions between host communities and the refugee population.
The projects are part of a £220 million package helping Jordan to cope with the massive influx of refugees. British support is providing food, water and shelter to hundreds of thousands of people across the country, as well as helping to keep basic services, such as education and healthcare.
Justine Greening said:
Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Jordan as the country continues to play a pivotal role promoting stability in the region and providing a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, many of whom have fled unimaginable horrors in their home country.
Almost four years since the start of the crisis, thousands of families are still unable to return home and are in need of our support. The UK’s new £100 million pledge will ensure Syrian refugees and host communities in countries like Jordan can continue to receive food, water and shelter while shoring up stretched public services.
This visit underlines Britain’s solidarity with Jordan as the country mourns the appalling murder of Lieutenant Moaz al-Kassasbeh, yet another example of the sacrifices being made by the Jordanian people.
The UN appeals for Syria and the region stand at £5.5 billion; the largest UN appeals ever for a single crisis. The UK will call on other donors to join this commitment and make good their existing promises at the International pledging Conference for the Syria crisis in Kuwait in March this year.
During the visit Greening also announced a £4.7 million programme with CARE International to help more than 35,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan.
The two year programme will allow CARE to provide:
- Urban refugee hubs, where refugees can find basic information on their rights and the services available to them;
- Basic household items; and
- Psychosocial care to help host and refugee communities integrate.
The new funding will take the UK’s total commitment to dealing with the Syrian crisis to £800 million – the UK’s largest ever response to a humanitarian crisis.
Notes to Editors
- UK aid is already providing support including food, medical care and relief items for over a million people including those affected by the fighting in Syria, as well as to refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
- By the end of September 2014, this had delivered over 8.7 million food rations, each of which feeds one person for one month; provided access to clean water for 1.5 million people per month; sanitation and hygiene services for over 950,000 people; over 1.3 million medical consultations; and shelter and relief items for almost 230,000 people in Syria and the region.
- For the latest updates on the UK’s humanitarian response to the crisis in Syria, please visit: http://www.gov.uk/uk-aid-syria
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