United Nations: Two million of the estimated three million Syrians that need food aren’t getting it because of the intensifying war and the government’s delay in granting visas to international humanitarian workers, the European Union’s international aid chief said on Tuesday.
Kristalina Georgieva called on Syria to issue more visas, and she urged the international community to put more pressure on the government and opposition to respect the laws of war — protect civilians, don’t shoot at ambulances, evacuate the wounded, allow entry for humanitarian workers, and allow safe exits for people who want to leave the country.
She told reporters after meeting Unicef’s executive director Anthony Lake that combatants in other conflicts have allowed a “humanitarian pause” to enable civilians to leave and evacuation of the wounded, but it hasn’t happened in Syria because there hasn’t been enough international pressure.
“In the absence of a political solution it is our duty to work as hard as we can to get more help to people inside Syria, more assistance to those who flee their homes,” Georgieva said.
“Today a million people out of about three million that need food assistance can get it as a result of the bravery of the humanitarian workers,” she said. “But two out of three do not get assistance ... because fighting has expanded” and affects more people in more parts of the country, and not enough humanitarian workers are getting visas.
“I have three members of my staff who are still waiting for permission to go there. We just need more helping hands in a crisis that is deepening,” Georgieva said.
As the war has intensified, she said, more people are being pushed out of their homes with no place inside Syria to go so they are fleeing to neighbouring countries.
The government estimates that 1.2 million Syrians are displaced inside the country, and the UN says over 250,000 have become refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.
