UNHCR: Help for Syria

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a Geneva-based United Nations (UN) organization established in 1950 to improve refugee resettlement globally. Today, the organization is facing the largest and most complex crisis its 65-year history—The Crisis in Syria. The most recent “Total Persons Confirmed” count is just over 4 million and only includes registered refugees.

The official response was launched in 2013 with the development of the Syria Regional Refugee Response, a plan to mobilize assistance for those fleeing the conflict by providing basic necessities. The UNHCR is leading the joint effort of over 30 international non-governmental agencies (NGOs), private corporations, individuals, and several governments. The plan is regularly reassessed due to changing conditions and includes a current-need and estimated future-need analysis. The agency also raises funds to finance these efforts. The need-assessed budget for 2015 is 1.15 € billion. However, the organization is currently working on a 44% funding level—leaving a 620 € million funding gap.

Several regional countries have taken domestic action to implement and fund the relief programs; notably Turkey, having welcomed nearly 2 million Syrian refugees to-date. As early as last spring, UNHCR Commissioner António Guterres began pushing the general lack of response from the international community.

“We cannot accept that the Syrian people will go on living in these absolutely tragic circumstances, and we cannot accept that countries like Lebanon and Jordan are facing such a dramatic challenge to their own economies and to their own stability,”- A. Guterres

This call for increased international support has taken a harsh hit in the European Union where there has been reluctance to grant asylum for a majority of those fleeing Syria. Recent widespread reports on the death toll for refugees crossing to Europe and increasing pressures on border countries (Italy, Spain, Greece) have triggered a response.

While the EU has just begun to shift policy, the need and urgency for response continues to rise exponentially. One of the major factors driving this new surge as increasing foreign force involvement in Syria. The UNHCR has also called on the USA to increase the asylum quota for those fleeing the region. While the USA is the highest funder of the UNHCR (by country), 200 € million in 2015, domestic political strife and national security concerns have limited any efforts to increase the asylum quota.

Beyond working to provide a safe and normalized migration process for refugees, the UNHCR also aims ensure that refugees are able to settle successfully into their new lives. This is another dimension that is often forgotten—the journey is only the first part of the struggle for most fleeing. Amid mounting international collaboration, the UNHCR is pledged to continue forward to provide as much relief to the region as possible.

*Written for the Crack 40, BIG--Finance Association at Grenoble Ecole de Management