In September 2014, according to Digital Journal, the World Food Program announced it was cutting food aid by about 60 percent to more than six million Syrians displaced because of the ongoing civil war within their country. In 2014, food vouchers were valued at anywhere from $31 to $25 a month.
One year later, on September 4, over 200,000 Syrians living in Jordan were informed the $14 food vouchers they rely on to survive were being stopped, Julie Marshall, Canadian spokesperson for WFP, told The Huffington Post.
The prospects are grim for the displaced Syrians. They can either return to Syria, stay in refugee camps, or try to make the long journey to Europe. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the start of the civil war in 2011. Most of them have settled in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
Abeer Etefa, a WFP regional spokeswoman, told the Associated Press the world must do more to help refugees in regional host countries or face even greater migration numbers. “This is a crisis that has been brewing in the region for five years,” she said.
The UN food agency has been distributing food vouchers since the beginning of the crisis, but now it is facing ever-widening gaps in funding. “Now it is getting the attention of the world because it moved one step further from the region to Europe. We have to help people where they are or they will move,” says Etafa.
“Since the beginning of this operation, it has been hand to mouth,” said Etefa. “It is nerve-wracking for the refugees and the staff.” She added the agency needs $236 million to keep the program going through November this year, even if it has to be scaled back.
Jordan hosts over 630,000 Syrian refugees. including over half a million in communities, and the rest in refugee camps. At the start of the Syrian civil war, there were only about 2,000 Syrians living in Jordan. As of this month, 29,000 of 440,000 urban refugees who had been receiving food aid have been cut off. The challenges of the human migration going on today have now been compounded by the possibility of starvation this coming winter.
