“We see increasing numbers of desperate civilians giving up all hope of staying in Syria as they flee the surge in violence. It is an outrage that tens of thousands are rendered homeless just before winter and on top of the 6.5 million Syrians who were already displaced,” said Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland.
“More than 120,000 have been displaced just in the last three weeks of fighting and our exhausted relief workers on the ground expect more will be displaced for as long as the fighting continues. It will raise the need for food, shelter and warm clothes far beyond the capacity of the humanitarian agencies able to respond inside Syria. It is only a matter of time before we see another wave of refugees crossing into Turkey and ultimately ending up on the deadly journey to Europe.
“We call on the governments who still believe in 'military solutions', after more than four years of war, to look the millions of displaced Syrian children straight in the eye, as their communities and their future are being destroyed. Now is the chance for external actors to stop fuelling the conflict and come together as international and regional powers to push the parties to the negotiations table. World leaders have an opportunity today in Vienna to follow up with action what most of them have already acknowledged publicly: that there are only political solutions and no military solutions to the conflict in Syria", says Jan Egeland.
Press contacts:
- Tuva Raanes Bogsnes, Head of Media, Oslo , +47 93231883
- Karl Schembri, Regional Media Advisor in the Middle East, +962 7902 20159