LEBANON: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard, tells Reuters that she is urging Gulf states and fast-growing BRICS economies to increase funds to cope with Syria's refugee crisis

Record ID: 274414

  • Title: LEBANON: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard, tells Reuters that she is urging Gulf states and fast-growing BRICS economies to increase funds to cope with Syria's refugee crisis
  • Date: 27th June 2013
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JUNE 27, 2013) (REUTERS) U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POPULATION, REFUGEES AND MIGRATION ANNE RICHARD, DURING INTERVIEW WITH REUTERS VARIOUS OF RICHARD SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POPULATION, REFUGEES AND MIGRATION, ANNE RICHARD, SAYING: "I was hopeful initially that if there were a possibility for achieving
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA16UHVYMPFF2L6DG1KMLQJVS8E
  • Story Text: Gulf Arab states and the fast-emerging BRICS economies should do more to address a likely funding shortfall of billions of dollars for Syrian aid efforts, a senior United States official said on Thursday (June 27).
    Describing Syria as an "overwhelming and fast-moving humanitarian catastrophe", Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard said the accelerating pace of the crisis presented an almost unprecedented challenge.
    "I was hopeful initially that if there were a possibility for achieving some sort of peace settlement last year in 2012, the refugees could go home and instead we see the numbers continue to grow. We now have 1.6 million refugees in the neighboring countries and we have at least four million people displaced inside Syria. The number affected and in need of aid is millions more and it's a real, real crisis that we all seem to be running to keep up with," Richard told Reuters in an interview at the U.S. embassy in Beirut The flood of refugees has left the small populations of Lebanon and Jordan struggling to cope, as the two-year conflict between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels drags on.
    The United Nations expects the refugee numbers to double by the end of the year and says 10 million will need help. It has launched its biggest ever aid effort in response, seeking five billion U.S. dollars to cover operations for the second half of the year.
    But its more modest appeal for the first six months of the year was significantly underfunded, raising questions over prospects for meeting the latest target.
    "Traditional donors in Europe feel the weight of economic problems. I think the world looks to the Gulf states to be new donors, emerging donors, non-traditional donors... Traditionally the Gulf states prefer to provide assistance bilaterally and sometimes prefer to provide in kind assistance. So when I go and ask them to write a cheque to the United Nations that represents a departure from their preferred methods of doing things in the past but we are in fact approaching countries - the BRICS and the Gulf countries, asking them to do more," said Richard.
    According to United Nations figures the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa contributed just 9.3 million USD out of a total of nearly 2.1 billion USD so far this year to U.N. and other aid organisations for the Syria crisis.
    Richard singled out Kuwait for delivering on a pledge of 300 million USD earlier this year, and for handing it over to the United Nations so that it was part of a coordinated international assistance.
    The United States pledged 300 million USD in humanitarian assistance earlier this month, bringing its total contribution since the start of the conflict to 815 million USD.
    Richard, Assistant Secretary for population, refugees and migration, was speaking during a visit to Lebanon whose four million people host a Syrian refugee population which officially stands at half a million and may be closer to 1 million.
    ENDS
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