UNHCR operational update on Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – According to an operational update by the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, 15.3 million Syrians were dependent on humanitarian assistance in 2022 – a 5 percent increase from the year prior. The UNHCR’s figures are clear evidence of deteriorating conditions in the country.
The UNHCR says it provided 236.000 people with winter provisions, such as blankets and warm clothes. Around 14 percent of those reached in 2022 were in areas that had previously been outside of the agency’s purview, such as the countryside of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.
North Press previously highlighted the plight of those living in the dozens of makeshift camps dotting the countryside of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. The camps and its inhabitants have largely been abandoned by international NGOs.
Yet the declining economic conditions have made outreach programs more, not less difficult. “As a result of the lack of fuel, 67% of [the UNHCR’s local partners] reported that their organization had to reduce the number of targeted geographic areas,” the report reads. Around 41% of respondents said they had to suspend outreach operations altogether.
The UNHCR estimates that there are now 6.8 million internally-displaced Syrians in the country, including in northeast Syria.
It also gave figures of so-called ‘voluntary returns’ of refugees abroad. According to its statistics, of the 50.966 returns it verified in 2022, 33.932 (or two-thirds) came from Turkey.
Over the past year, Turkey has arrested Syrian refugees on trumped-up charges and forcing them to sign ‘voluntary return’ paperwork. On Tuesday, 40 Syrians were expelled to Turkish-controlled Syria by the country’s authorities.