Now, the material assistance is left to the donors and the international community to really match what these countries have done. And that is not coming through. We have to be prepared for the consequences.

Question: Following up on that, where is it [funding] not coming through? Your major donors are the United States, the European Union and these countries and so forth, I don’t think that the Arab countries are particularly generous in the past? Has this changed and have you seen contributions falling down from your traditional big donors, like the United States and maybe also the EU?

Amin Awad: From the outset I would like to say I am very grateful to the generosity of donors. These contributions are made on a voluntary basis, there are no binding rules. If you look back at the last six years, I don’t think the international community collectively in solidarity stayed the course. Our appeals are very clear, it’s to the whole international community: There is US$25 billion, that is the bill that the UN and international community puts out almost every year.  If you look at the last 2 years, $23 billion to $25 billion. Then if you look at Syria, yes, the Syria situation we are at 53 percent. If you look at other countries in Africa, I am afraid it is nine per cent, 11 per cent, 13 per cent.

If you walk into the camps of refugees in Africa at sunset around five or six o’clock you hear children, below the age of five crying. Why? Because they are going to bed hungry. Funding is not coming, the system has to be fixed, somehow. Now talking about the Arab donors and others and the Western donors, yes, they have been staying the course, they have been delivering on pledges, not equally, some are, some are not. It depends from one year to another, maybe they have other priorities in other parts of the world, other sectors, but the Arab world, when you look at Kuwait one, Kuwait two and three, 1.3 billion was generously paid by Kuwait alone and others and we are trying as much as possible to encourage donors, potential donors, traditional donors or new and make sure that we have a good solid beginning for each appeal we launch.

Question: You mentioned something which you were unable to do because of the lack of money. But were there programmes which you actually had to cut that were operating but you no longer had the money in order to support them?

Amin Awad: Yes, in many areas: In health, in education, in food, in community services, in protection in shelter, in winterization. For example, we are supposed to provide for 3.4 million refugees during winter time. As of 11 December we had received only about 50 per cent of that funding. We are not able to provide stoves, we are not able to deliver kerosene, we are not able to deliver enough thermal blankets, and we are not able to winterize tents, we are not able to drain rainwater and snow from camps, we are not able to do engineering work to insulate some of the buildings, people are sitting in cold and open buildings. If you look at indications why we are at 50 per cent. 47 per cent of the children are out (school), there are not enough classrooms.

We are not supporting the governments in Lebanon or Jordan or Iraq to put more classes, to put more teachers, to open their systems which are stretched. The health sector is also stretched and the generosity of the neighbouring countries really saved the day but yet host communities and refugees are not getting the healthcare that they should get. These are just a few examples. Refugees are not living in luxury, they are living in horrible daily survival and not to talk about the psychological stress that they go through, day in and day out. They feel and some of them tell us that every time they wake up they look at a very dark future because they face the unknown.

Question: You say you are having difficulties with funding for hosting countries. Turkey has the largest number of Syrian refugees worldwide – 3.3 million.  Turkish authorities said last week that they spent so far US$30 billion for the refugees. Do you have any specific plans for Syrian refugees in Turkey?

Amin Awad: Turkey received 3.3 million refugees. All of them live, except five to ten per cent, in camps. They all live in towns and villages throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. The figure that you quote, the figure that I heard that Turkey recorded that they have contributed is US$30 billion since the influx of the Syrian refugees six or seven years ago.

Yet, I think, the refugees in Turkey – despite the generosity of the Turkish government – I won’t say they are living in luxury. About 55 per cent are going to school, the others are not. Despite the good programmes that were put in place to employ Syrian refugees and open the [labour] market for them – a lot of them remain unemployed because of the economic challenges.

But, overall I think, the most important thing for us when it comes to talking about the neighbouring countries in particular and Turkey is not an exemption – the most important thing is that they opened their doors, they offered a place of protection, of refuge, and that is for us is more valuable than anything else. But, of course, the material assistance and the wellbeing of refugees and the day to day life is very important.

Question: Regarding the borders – Lebanon closed the border, Turkey, Iraq and so forth. That seems to be a big problem. What are you going to do about that?

Amin Awad: Borders are managed. In some instances are closed. Many of these countries cite security, cite economic crises, internal upheaval, xenophobia, tensions and all of that is happening. But some refugees are still coming. Lebanon, we should just mention, is still accepting vulnerable cases, medical cases, so is Turkey. Not only that borders are closed – we are even seeing refoulement, we’re seeing expulsion, people sent back. And our job is to force, demarche these countries in the region to do better than they did before and keep their borders open. And the same applies, as a matter of fact, to the rest of the continent.
END