Conference closes with more than $10bn in pledges
Here are the main points as the London conference closes.
- David Cameron said the conference has raised more than $10bn - the largest amount of money ever raised in one day in response to a humanitarian crisis. The prime minister said the conference received pledges approaching $6bn for 2016 alone, and a further $5bn over the longer term to 2020. “It means millions of people will now receive life-saving food medical care and shelter in Syria and beyond,” said the prime minister.
- One million children currently not in school would be given access to education by the end of the next school year. Countries in the region have agreed to open up their economies to create new jobs. The move will be backed by loans from international financial institutions and access to European markets.
- Britain pledged $1.75bn in new aid between now and 2020, and the US committed $900m to bring total US humanitarian spending to $5bn. Germany, which took in more than 1 million refugees last year, said it would give $2.5bn through 2018.
- The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu accused the Assad regime of ethnic cleansing. He said 30,000 Syrians are fleeing camps between Aleppo and Turkey because of Russian airstrikes. “This is ethnic cleansing and a war crime,” he said.
- UN-brokered peace talks with the Syrian government and opposition have been suspended until 25 February amid concern about continuing airstrikes. Bashar al-Assad’s opponents say that UN resolution 2254, mandating the talks, requires an end to airstrikes and humanitarian relief for suffering civilians. UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon accused Syria’s Assad regime of undermining the suspended Geneva peace talks by a sudden increase in aerial bombing and military activity in the country.
Those Cameron quotes.
“Today’s conference has seen the largest amount of money ever raised in one day in response to a humanitarian crisis with well over $10bn pledged. Today has been and is a day of hope, a day about saving lives, a day about building futures, a day about giving people the chance of a future, the chance of a life. We have secured approaching $6bn for 2016 alone, and a further $5bn over the longer term to 2020. It means millions of people will now receive life-saving food medical care and shelter in Syria and beyond.”
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Cameron: Donor conference for Syria raises more than $10bn (£6.85bn)
In his remarks, Cameron said the conference for Syria has raised more than $10bn in pledges.
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The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, one of the co-hosts, calls upon the Assad regime and others to come to “come to a point that we don’t create more misery” and more people to flee. Erna Solberg, the Norwegian prime minister, another co-host, thanks Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, for hosting so many refugees, and emphasises the importance of Syrian children receiving an education.
David Cameron is now speaking at the co-hosts press conference. He says the money raised will ensure that 1m children not in school will get an education. On the political situation, he stresses the need for a political transition and calls on Russia to use its influence to end the indiscriminate bombing of civilians. He ends his brief statement with a pledge to the Syrian people: “We will stand with you as as long as it takes to secure peace in Syria.”
Patrick Kingsley has been talking to the head of the International Organisation for Migration. He has hailed the generosity of the global community, but points out that aid is only part of the answer.
“We’re probably ahead of schedule in terms of the amounts, which is quite significant,” says William Lacy Swing. “The chances of reaching their goal are very good.”
But he also reminds politicians that aid alone is not enough: “It’s an important element in a complex formula, but clearly the most important thing is to stop the war. But in the meantime we have to save lives and to improve lives – and that’s by educating children and creating jobs.”
He also says that solving the Syrian crisis will not solve Europe’s migration crisis by itself – since Syrians only form half of the flow towards the continent.
“I cannot remember any time in my long career in which we’ve had so many simultaneous protracted complex crises – from the Horn of Africa to the Himalayas. There’s Boko Haram in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, unfinished revolutions in Libya and Yemen, and then the big one – Syria – all this at one time. The big one is getting Syria ended, but you still have to deal with a lot of other places where people whose lives are on hold.”
Lastly, Swing says the west cannot forego the policy of legal resettlement as part of its response – since the increased likelihood of formal resettlement tends to encourage people to stay put in transit countries for longer.
“The more resettlement countries you have, and the larger resettlement quotas there are, the likelier it is that people will say ‘hey, if I wait a while longer, then maybe i’ll get to go [to Europe through legal channels]. But that’s not the case at the moment because the refugee numbers are too high and the countries of resettlement are too few.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/refugee-crisis-priority-is-agreed-routes-end-to-war-and-improving-lives
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Katherine Nightingale of Care International UK says more important than today’s pledges is bringing an end to the violence and targeting of civilians. The people who can make that happen aren’t all here but this remains paramount. Meanwhile, she emphasises the importance of legal work for refugees.
Care is pushing hard for donors, governments and the private sector to create legal jobs with decent work for Syrians. This is a long term crisis - emergency aid alone is not an appropriate way for families to survive for years. They are a skilled and educated workforce wanting to work.
This is also about social cohesion - making sure we work with vulnerable communities in the neighbouring countries. We don’t want Syrians taking their jobs and we don’t want Syrians to be exploited. Our concern is that the the final paper may not contain appropriate and vital language around ‘decent work’ for Syrian refugees. We need the private sector to support this and so far, progress on this has been encouraging.
The conference has moved to the theme of education. The Nobel peace prize laureate, Malala Yousafazai, challenges donors to come up with $1.4bn to provide education for the 700,000 Syrian children out of school. “It is a number the world can afford,” she says. “Losing this generation is a cost the world cannot.”
Jordan, which has received 1.3 million Syrian refugees, is pressing the west to do more to help it cope with the influx of Syrians. The refugee camp at Zaatari is now in effect one of the biggest cities in Jordan.
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A government official familiar with these pledging conferences revealed they are not all pro-cooked and genuine pressure is put on delegations on the day to offer more than they originally intended.
The technique is to build maximum publicity around the conference, and then make sure the big pledges are announced first in a bid to shame those that have not been providing very much aid. But the host partners rarely identify the countries that are laggards. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said there were at least 10 countries that had not provided any cash, but did not name them.
David Cameron had a brief conversation with the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, in the margins of the Supporting Syria conference, Downing Street confirmed.
“The prime minister and foreign minister Zarif agreed that progress had been made on the bilateral relationship,” Downing Street said.
But Cameron in public made an indirect appeal for the Iranians to do more to restrain President Assad. In an additional conference intervention, Cameron said: “There are violations of international humanitarian law and the perpetrators are in violation of UN resolution after resolution and there is a duty on all of us, particularly those with any sort of relationship with the Syrian regime, to put pressure on the responsible parties right now”.
“Those who still believe there can be a military solution to this war need to wake up,” Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative, told the London conference.
Mogherini, who is charged with coordinating and carrying out the EU’s foreign and security policy, pledged to give the project €2.6bn for 2016 and 2017. She said the EU is working with Jordan to promote new employment and economic investment to help neighbouring nations cope with the crisis.
“Jordan and Lebanon are still rocks in the Middle Eastern storm and investing in their resilience and in the sustainability of their investments is of benefit to our own security as well,” she said.
Germany - like the US - has blamed military escalation by the Assad regime for the suspension of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva. AFP reports:
“The fighting has seen an escalation and regime forces bear the responsibility for that,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, at news conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir.
“This is a very difficult situation,” Steinmeier said, according to an English translation of his remarks. “But there is still a glimpse of hope. There is still a conviction of all parties to maintain the principles of Vienna... based on that we can come back to the negotiating table.”
Jubeir told reporters the Syrian government delegation “was not serious” about peace negotiations and that Russia had intensified its military operations in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, introduces the second part of the summit, the “Inside Syria pledging session”, with a powerful reminding delegates guests that the point of today’s international gathering is to help more 6.5 million Syrians, “who are lost” within their home country.
She reminds attendees that refugees require “islands of hope” - vital aid such as infrastructure, water and electricity, services which Germany pledges to provide.
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The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has expanded on his warnings of a mass exodus from Syria after hundreds of Russian airstrikes against opposition strongholds, writes Patrick Wintour.
Speaking to the Guardian, Davutoğlu said:
“In Northern Latakia and in Aleppo in the last week 10,000 escaped from Turkey and we received them. Now the most dangerous and criminal act is being conducted against Aleppo. The city has been under bombardment for 5 years. It is the economic backbone for Syria and became the main safe haven for opponents of the regime. Now the corridor between Aleppo and Turkey – the means by which food needs and assistance not just from Turkey but the rest of the world is carried by trucks to Aleppo – has been attacked by extremists and cut off.
Davutoğlu accused the Assad regime of ethnic cleansing.
“The situation is very very worrying. Between Aleppo and Turkey there were 10 camps to which Turkey was providing humanitarian assistance so the Syrians would stay in their homeland. They are now escaping from these camps and we already have 10,000 of them on our borders. Now there are 30,000 on their way. This is ethnic cleansing and a war crime. Whoever says it is not ethnic cleansing on the Turkish border should go to the border to see themselves.”
He was also scathing about Russia’s support of the Assad regime.
Being a member of the Permanent 5 on the UN Security Council does not give anyone permission or legitimacy to attack a country by any means. 90% of Russian operations are against moderates or civilian schools and hospitals. I have been to the hospitals to see the victims.
And Davutoğlu said Turkey had lost patience with the UN.
We have lost our hope and faith that we will get anything from the UN. Their only concern is to play a diplomatic game in luxury hotels. The UN was formed to protect humanitarian values. Once a UN Secretary General went to Srebenicia in Bosnia to apologise because the UN failed to stop the massacres in 1995 and I am sure one day another UN Secretary General will go to Aleppo and to Madaya to apologise to the Syrian people because it has not stopped these massacres.
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Ertharin Cousin, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme, has personally thanked the German chancellor Angela Merkel for Germany’s “unprecedented contribution”.
“Germany’s generous support has already enabled us not only to save Syrians’ lives but also to support the livelihoods of suffering people. This unprecedented donation will restore hope to so many of those who have been caught up in this terrible conflict,” said Cousin, who met Merkel in London. “We are extremely grateful to the German government.”
WFP says the contribution, which brings Germany’s total contributions to WFP during the Syria crisis to close to €760m, will be crucial for the winter. It says one euro feeds one refugee a day in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. WFP currently supports an average 4 million Syrians a month inside the country and 1.3 million refugees in neighbouring countries.
Germany is WFP’s second largest donor in the Syria crisis after the US, having provided €137m for WFP’s emergency response both inside and beyond Syria in 2015.
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Syrian civil society organisations have complained that they were treated in a “stereotyped and patronising way” at a conference in London on Wednesday in advance of today’s donor pledging event, writes Ian Black.
“We were provided a token presence and applauded and listened to only to justify that the system ‘engages’ with Syrians,” six groups said in a joint statement.
They say they were only invited at a very late stage, under-represented, given too short a time to discuss their priorities and asked to report back with only two general recommendations for each funding category.
“Syrians are the primary stakeholders in the Syrian conflict and should be treated as such in all processes devoted to addressing the Syrian conflict,” they said in a statement.
“We should be listened to not only out of respect, but also as an essential ingredient for success. Truly, real change in Syria can only be achieved through listening to those on the ground, those who are at the forefront of both the humanitarian and political responses.”
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Ban Ki Moon has held talks with Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, whose presence at conference has angered opposition activists in Syria over Iran’s support for the Assad regime.
Ban’s office said he told Zarif that he “very much regretted that increased aerial bombing, as well petty procedural issues, had forced his Special Envoy to temporarily postpone the Syria talks”.
It added: “The Secretary-General told the Foreign Minister that Iran could play a positive role in the effort to achieve a cessation of violence in Syria so as to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and allow humanitarian aid delivery.”
Zarif called for the resumption Syrian peace talks. “We hope that the pause in the Geneva talks is only temporary,” Zarif said in an address to a donor conference in London.
Activists have circulated pictures purporting to show Syrian children holding up messages urging Iran to stop supporting the Syrian government.
@matthew_weaver Syrian children in #Aleppo denounce #Iran regime's support for Bashar Assad. #SupportSyrians #Syria pic.twitter.com/H93KRIdo9o
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) February 4, 2016
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, urged both sides to resume peace talks later this month and “seize the current window of opportunity.”
He said: “Both sides should avoid setting preconditions, strive to narrow difference through the talks and take necessary steps in areas of ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, and release of prisoners to gradually build up trust.”
He called on all sides to allow humanitarian access. “All parties and groups must earnestly implement the security council resolution to allow humanitarian supplies.”
Yi promised no new cash but did pledge 10,000 tonnes in food aid.
Is someone keeping a running total?
Australia just pledged an extra $25m.
Australian Foreign Minister Bishop pledges an additional $25m to #SupportSyrians
— Supporting Syria (@SupportSyrians) February 4, 2016
Next up China...
France, which has been criticised for its low contribution to date, pledged more than €1bn in aid between 2016 and 2018.
But French foreign minister Laurent Fabius called for action to deal with the root causes of the crisis. He accused the Assad regime of “torpedoing” efforts to find a political solution. A solution can’t be found while indiscriminate bombing continues, Fabius said.
“We need bombing to stop and for human rights to be respected,” Fabius.
Earlier Austrian Chancellor Faymann pledged an extra €60m euros
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Pledges of cash are racking up.
Denmark’s prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen just pledged $100m in aid. And his Finnish counterpart Juha Petri Sipilä promised €25m.
Here’s a selection of some of the other pledges.
Belgium pledged €75m:
België zegt 75 mio euro toe op internationale donorconferentie Syrië #SupportSyrians https://t.co/HRLhnsB62J pic.twitter.com/kcv0ytXEIv
— Alexander De Croo (@alexanderdecroo) February 4, 2016
The US pledged $925m:
. @JohnKerry announces additional $925m in humanitarian aid & development assistance for #Syria #SupportingSyrians pic.twitter.com/y9NfoUwREw
— U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) February 4, 2016
Poland pledged €4.5m:
Premier @BeataSzydlo na #SupportSyrians: Polska zamierza przeznaczyć 4,5 mln euro na wsparcie poszkodowanych w kryzysie syryjskim.
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) February 4, 2016
Italy pledged: $400m
Italian Foreign Minister @PaoloGentiloni pledges US$400million to #SupportSyrians over next 3 years.
— Supporting Syria (@SupportSyrians) February 4, 2016
Japan pledged $350m:
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Yoji Muto commits $350 million to #SupportSyrians in 2016.
— Supporting Syria (@SupportSyrians) February 4, 2016
The UAE stumped up $137m:
UAE Foreign Minister pledges US$137m to #SupportSyrians in 2016
— Supporting Syria (@SupportSyrians) February 4, 2016
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The European Investment Bank [EIB] is to lend €12.5bn to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt over the next five years to help provide jobs and opportunities to Syrian refugees.
Announcing the loan European Council president Donald Tusk said: “We have a moral duty to bring their hope back.”
He said total EIB lending could reaching €23bn in the Middle East and North Africa by 2021.
He also confirmed that the EU will commit more than €3 bn to respond to the needs of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey for 2016.
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The UN decision to suspend Syrian peace talks in Geneva has left a huge question mark hanging over the future of the already deeply fragile process, writes the Guardian Middle East editor Ian Black.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy – in London for the Syria donor conference - made clear that he intends to resume by 25 February, if not earlier. But the opposition negotiators have made it equally plain that they will not come back to the Palais des Nations with some positive change on the ground in Syria.
With Russian air strikes in support of Bashar al-Assad escalating, it is not clear what that might be. Air drops of food to besieged areas are one option being considered– but these still face huge political and logistical difficulties. The UN says clearly that its preference is for road deliveries.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, reminded the donor conference that UN resolution 2254, which underpins the diplomacy of the Syrian crisis, demands “safe and unhindered” humanitarian access throughout Syria and an end to all attacks on civilians. “That’s mandatory, that’s the basis of these talks,” Kerry said.
Kerry added that he had would be talking to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, about how to implement a ceasefire and come up with confidence-building measures that would help a return to Geneva. Syrian opposition officials continue to worry that Washington has moved far too close on Moscow.
Britain’s representative to the Syrian opposition, Gareth Bayley, expressed “steadfast” support for the talks, but did not sound upbeat. He said: “The political process remains crucial to secure a political transition away from Assad and an end to the suffering of the Syrian people. But we must be realistic, progress takes time, and this sensible pause will allow all sides to reflect on discussions so far and ensure all parties are taking part in good faith.”
And there was an strikingly harsh comment about Moscow’s role. Bayley said: “Russia and the (Assad) regime must not sit at the table whilst deliberately bombing the moderate opposition and killing civilians in blatant breach of international humanitarian law.”
Syrian opposition representatives have been leaving Geneva without knowing when, or if, they will be back. “Tactically it was the wrong thing for de Mistura to announce a suspension,” said one adviser. “He should have issued an ultimatum to create a bit of pressure. I’m not optimistic about the future of these talks.”
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) have managed to deliver food and medicine to more than 12,000 besieged civilians in the town of Moadamiyeh near Damascus.
“We saw how desperate people are in #Moadamiyeh. They are hungry and they need us." https://t.co/oHH7zfEBTK #Syria pic.twitter.com/qVbfJ9GhW4
— ICRC (@ICRC) February 4, 2016
Marianne Gasser, who led the team which entered Moadamiyeh on Wednesday said: “People in besieged areas count every day of their life as a bonus. They have so little to survive on. They want us to bring relief regularly and that’s what we are continuously asking for.”
“What we have seen on our way into town only shows how desperate the people are in Moadamiyeh. They are hungry and they need us. Unconditional aid must be allowed to reach people in all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria,” she said.
The ICRC pointed out the the latest food supplies will only last for around three weeks.
The ICRC and SARC also involved in talks with the Syrian government on bringing more relief to other besieged towns including Madaya in Rural Damascus and Foua and Kafraya in Idlib province. The ICRC has repeatedly called for continued and unimpeded access to these and other besieged areas and for all sieges to be lifted.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry called for a 30% increase in funding from the international community for Syrian refugees.
Speaking at the conference he urged 10 unnamed countries to contribute for the first time and open their doors to Syrian refugees.
He also pledged to return to the suspended peace talks later this month. “We will get back to these talks in Geneva,” he said.
Earlier Kerry demanded that Russia stop bombing the Syrian opposition, implicitly blaming Moscow for the collapse in peace talks, AFP reports.
Speaking alongside Britain’s Foreign Minister Phillip Hammond, Kerry read out sections of UN Security Council resolution 2254, passed in December, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“Russia has a responsibility, as do all parties, to live up to it,” he said.
“So I had a conversation this morning with Foreign Minister Lavrov. We discussed, and we agreed, that we need to discuss how to implement the ceasefire.”
Kerry also said that both parties to the conflict - the rebels as well as the regime and its allies - must allow access to besieged areas for humanitarian aid.
“So we had a robust discussion this morning about that. We will be continuing the discussion,” Kerry said.
“Foreign Minister Lavrov and I will talk again today or tomorrow as we further this process and find the way forward to be able to implement this resolution fully.
The Russian foreign ministry said the ministers had agreed to do everything possible to make the break in Syrian peace talks “as short as possible.”
According to the Moscow read-out, Lavrov also voiced concern about “unacceptable” preliminary conditions being put forward by “some representatives” of the Syrian opposition.
Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafazai underlined the initiative to help hundreds of thousands of Syrian children back to school, by introducing Mazoun Almellehan to speak on behalf of displaced Syrian children.
The British government is hyping aid as the only solution to the European refugee crisis, writes Patrick Kingsley.
The international development minister, Justine Greening, argues that aid will provide jobs in transit countries like Jordan – which in turn will persuade Syrians to stay put in the Middle East.
But the devil is in the detail. The hope is that western investment will pave the way for new “special economic zones”, where in a best-case scenario, around 25,000 Syrians could find work. But these jobs will take time to materialise – if they materialise at all – and will pay Syrians no more than they already earn on the black market, and sometimes even less.
Abu Omar, a 39-year-old Syrian I met in Jordan this week, earns around 450 dinars a month (about £450) working illegally as a ceramicist in Amman. The wage at one of the new economic zones, if they ever see the light of day, would be around 200 dinars – making Abu Omar sceptical of the scheme’s impact.
“Even if they give us work – if it isn’t a good salary, I’ll still think of going to Europe because the salary isn’t enough for rent,” says Abu Omar, a pseudonym that means “Omar’s father”.
The Jordanians are talking a good game about opening up the labour market to Syrians – but Abu Omar thinks this is all bluster to encourage the west to give them more aid. He reckons Jordan doesn’t really see any benefit in letting Syrians feel more settled – it’ll only make them stay in cash-strapped Jordan for longer.
“They don’t want us to work,” says Abu Omar. “They haven’t got enough work for themselves – do you think they want to find more work for Syrians?”
Summary
Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far:
- David Cameron has pledged an additional £1.2bn to support Syrian refugees. Writing in the Guardian ahead of today’s conference he said: “We will now more than double our total pledge to over £2.3bn – committing twice as much this year as last.”
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon accused Syria’s Assad regime of undermining the suspended Geneva peace talks by a sudden increase in aerial bombing and military activity in the country. “It is deeply disturbing that the initial steps of the talks have been undermined by the continuous lack of sufficient humanitarian access, and by a sudden increase of aerial bombing and military activities within Syria,” he told the donor conference.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her government will provide €2.3bn (£1.75bn) in aid for Syrians by 2018, including €1.2bn this year. “If we all contribute our share, this can be a day of hope,” she said.
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Activists and humanitarian workers in Syrian towns besieged by government forces and their allies, have urged world leaders to break the sieges or provide air drops. In an open letter to the conference, they said:”We are witnessing first-hand a catastrophe that includes starvation, injury and death due to blockades and bombardment.
- Former prime minister Gordon Brown called for a humanitarian operation as ambitious as the postwar Marshall plan to address the chaos of 12 million Syrians displaced from their homes. Writing in the Guardian he warned: “If we fail to rise to the challenge of providing for families close to their homes, countless more will soon take the long-term decision to start a new life in a different continent.”
- UN-brokered peace talks with the Syrian government and opposition have been suspended until 25 February amid concern about continuing airstrikes. Bashar al-Assad’s opponents say that UN resolution 2254, mandating the talks, requires an end to airstrikes and humanitarian relief for suffering civilians.
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, accused Syria’s Assad regime of adopting medieval tactics by starving civilians in besieged cities.
He described the siege of Madaya as a “starvation strategy from the middle centuries”. And he called on the international community to do more to provide humanitarian access to besieged civilians.
“Whoever is preventing humanitarian access in Syria, whether in Aleppo of Madaya, they are a criminal against humanity,” Davutoğlu told the conference.
He also blamed the suspension of peace talks on the Assad regime. “It ended because when the [Assad] regime was going to Geneva, the aerial bombardment was continuing in Aleppo in Latakia against civilians.”
He added: “We have to be honest with each other. All these refugees who have migrated to Turkey they were escaping aerial bombardment from the regime or now by foreign forces.
“Daesh - a terrorist organisation - emerged because of this power vacuum. We have to stand shoulder to shoulder against those committing war crime.”
Countries giving humanitarian aid to Syria should beware of transforming despondent refugee communities into a “fertile ground for extremism,” warned Lebanon’s prime minister Tammam Salam, writes Emily Townsend.
“Unemployment and poverty in Lebanon has increased considerably, shortages became more critical in everything from water to energy supply. Humanitarian assistance alone is not the key - the only answer to the refugees’ ordeal is a return to normal life in their country,” he said.
He warned that “time is running out” - children in Lebanon are not attending school, and food rations are smaller every day.
“This is a time for empathy and intellectual understanding and most of all this is a time for courage,” he added.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said that his country would focus on providing a “sustainable” approach to the 1.3 million Syrian refugees it is supporting, writes Emily Townsend.
“Our holistic approach is sustainable and focuses on self sufficiency, not just aid and relief.
Jordan was hit with the first wave of refugees in challenging times.
This resilience is what has enabled Jordan to respond when we saw our neighbours were in trouble.”
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Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg pledged 10bn Norwegian Kronas (£804m)over the next four years - primarily for education and child protection, writes Emily Townsend.
“Schools and hospitals must not be attacked, starvation must not be used as a weapon,” Soldberg told the conference.
She added: “We must support the victims, the women and girls who will have to rebuild their country when the conflict is over.”
“This year we will triple last year’s pledge. It is time we step up for Syria and this time is now, today, at this meeting.”
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Angela Merkel confirmed that Germany will provide €2.3bn in aid for Syrians by 2018, including €1.2bn this year.
Some €570m will go to the World Food Programme, she said.
Merkel also highlighted a €3bn EU fund to help Turkey.
“If we all contribute our share, this can be a day of hope,” she said. But she cautioned “it cannot replace the political process”.
Here’s footage of the world leaders gathering for the conference.
Ban Ki-moon says bombing has undermined peace talks
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has called for the resumption of meaningful talks in Geneva.
He said the talks been undermined by a sudden increase in aerial bombing and military activity in the country.
“It is deeply disturbing that the initial steps of the talks have been undermined by the continuous lack of sufficient humanitarian access, and by a sudden increase of aerial bombing and military activities within Syria,” Ban told the donor conference.
He added:
I agree fully with my Special Envoy that we should not have talks for the sake of talks. The coming days should be used to get back to the table, not to secure more gains on the battlefield.
I urge the Security Council and the International Support Group for Syria to press the parties to engage seriously with each other on Syria’s future.
These latest political developments add even greater urgency to our efforts here today to ease the suffering of millions of Syrian men, women and children.
Ban condemned all sides in the conflict.
All sides in this conflict are committing human rights abuses of a shocking scale and depravity. Palestinian refugees, already vulnerable, are doubly dispossessed and in a desperate position. We must end sieges and bring food to starving people.
Let us change the narrative. Let us bring true hope to Syria and the region.
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“If ever there was a moment to take a new approach to the humanitarian crisis in Syria – surely it is now,” David Cameron tells the conference.
He said the long-term solution was a political settlement. Cameron said: “We must continue to work towards that, however difficult it maybe. But while we pursue a solution to this horrific conflict we can also take vital steps now that will make a real difference.”
Germany pledges €2.3bn
Germany has pledged €2.3bn (£1.75bn) to Syria by 2018, including €1.1bn this year, Reuters reports.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to address the conference in the next few minutes.
The suspension of the Syrian peace talks in Geneva are threatening to overshadow the donor conference.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the talks were pointless while Russian airstrikes continued.
Today’s Zaman quoted him casting doubt on whether the talks could resume in three weeks.
“Russia continues to kill people in Syria. Could there be such a peace gathering? Could there be such peace talks?
“In an environment where children are still being killed, such attempts do not have any function apart from making things easier for the tyrant,”
“They always convene, get together, eat, drink and then leave. Now they are giving a date for end-February. Let’s watch. You will see that once it is Feb. 28 they will postpone again.”
Concern is mounting within the UN that its response to the Syria crisis has exposed similar systemic failings to those it had vowed to eradicate after its widely condemned handling of the final stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war, write Martin Chulov and Kareem Shaheen in Beirut
Almost seven years after that conflict ended, and with the scale of human suffering in Syria eclipsing all other recent wars, the UN is struggling to end chronic starvation sieges across the country or deliver meaningful aid to areas most in need.
The UN’s role in Syria has come into sharp focus since early January after the extent of one such siege in the town of Madaya was revealed. As many as 70 people are thought to have starved to death in the town between Damascus and the Lebanese border, and thousands more were left malnourished.
Food to sustain its remaining residents for one month was finally delivered several weeks later after an international outcry that shifted focus from the 6.5 million refugees who have fled Syria to the plight of the millions more who have stayed behind.
Correspondence has since emerged revealing the UN had known about Madaya’s desperation since the siege was imposed by the Syrian regime last July but had been hesitant to highlight the crisis because of a fraught relationship with officials in Damascus.
While the British government presents today’s conference as the best and only means of helping Syrians, some humanitarian leaders are warning that aid cannot be donated at the expense of resettling refugees from the Middle East, or of establishing a common European asylum policy, writes Patrick Kingsley.
I’ve been speaking with Vincent Cochetel, the head of the UN refugee agency’s Europe bureau. “Stabilising population movement by assisting countries that host large numbers of Syrian refugees is a good thing,” Cochetel says. “But it cannot be a substitute for a proper management of the flow towards Europe.”
Cochetel points out that the number of refugees arriving in Greece in January was actually higher than the number that landed in July 2015. His point is that however many jobs may eventually be created by today’s aid donations – they are no short- or medium-term solution to the European refugee crisis, which will continue unabated whether or not the aid conference is a success.
At the very least, Cochetel hopes the EU will uphold their promise to relocate 160,000 asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy, and share them throughout the rest of the continent. So far, just 272 have been sent elsewhere in Europe.
“To start implementing the decisions of the European council,” says Cochetel, “that would at least be a good start.”
Downing Street has confirmed the government’s plans to double aid to Syrian refugees.
In a statement David Cameron said:
With hundreds of thousands of people risking their lives crossing the Aegean or the Balkans, now is the time to take a new approach to the humanitarian disaster in Syria.
Today’s pledge of more than £2.3bn in UK aid sets the standard for the international community – more money is needed to tackle this crisis and it is needed now.
But the conference I am hosting today is about more than just money. Our new approach of using fundraising to build stability, create jobs and provide education can have a transformational effect in the region – and create a future model for humanitarian relief.
And we can provide the sense of hope needed to stop people thinking they have no option but to risk their lives on a dangerous journey to Europe.
Although aid is much needed for Syrian refugees, there are four other key approaches that the international community should also try, according to the Guardian’s migration correspondent Patrick Kingsley:
1. Increase mass resettlement
More than million Syrian rhave now arrived in Europe despite the resistance of EU leaders. It therefore makes sense to at least slow and manage their arrival by offering them a realistic chance of resettlement.
This would encourage refugees tempted to smuggle themselves to Greece to bide their time on the other side of the Mediterranean, since they would now have the prospect of getting to Europe in a safer manner.
2. Enact a common European asylum policy
In order to take the pressure off countries such as Germany, Europe needs to standardise the asylum process in every EU state so that refugees receive the same treatment, benefits and chance of residency wherever they end up.
European countries must also establish a better means of sharing refugees proportionally among them, so that countries on the frontline are not left with hundreds of thousands of refugees stranded on their soil. Most are flatly opposed to doing this – wary of the challenges of integration – but the alternative is to do nothing, which will only lead to more chaos.
3. Address the needs of Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers
Any effective migration strategy cannot just address Syrians living in Lebanon and Jordan. It also needs to offer alternatives and solutions to the thousands fleeing Afghanistan and Iraq – countries that are almost as dysfunctional as Syria.
At the very least, the aid donations and work programmes that are about to be aimed at Syrians need also to target Afghans and Iraqis.
4. Encourage Gulf countries and the US to pull their weight
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also heavily invested in the Syrian war, but like the west, are doing little to deal with its fallout by welcoming refugees.
While they are supporting the aid effort, they also need to take in more Syrians to help ease the burden on their Arab neighbours.
With US politicians turning against refugees in the aftermath of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, it seems unlikely the US will to join the effort. But with a population of 300 million, its contribution would be the decisive factor in any successful resettlement programme.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron claims it was his party in the coalition government that pushed the Conservatives to committing 0.7% of GDP to international aid. In a statement he said:
“Today’s conference highlights the vital impact this money can have to save the lives of millions, and provide essential aid to rebuild and make countries safe which have been torn apart by conflict.
“Our international partners in this effort must follow Britain’s lead. Other countries, including France and Saudi Arabia, must understand their obligations.
“But Aid alone is not enough. The world’s failure to stabilise the region has seen millions of people flee war. Thousands of orphaned children are already lost and alone in Europe and need our help today. We cannot ignore the plight of those people who are no longer in Syria, living desperately in camps, travelling across the continent, or abandoned in the hands of people smugglers.”
Yvette Cooper, former shadow home secretary and chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, welcomed the government’s pledge to double aid for Syrian refugees. In a statement she said:
“We urgently need more help for refugees driven from their homes in Syria both by Daesh and by Assad government forces. It is terrible that food rations in the camps were cut last year - that drove thousands of people to risk their lives on dangerous journeys to Europe. Schooling for children and the chance to work locally are essential too.
“Britain is right to invest more and other countries need to follow Britain’s lead in helping Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey to cope with several million desperate refugees. We also need humanitarian action and aid in Europe too - especially in Greece and the Balkans where families are suffering in the cold, and in Calais and Dunkirk to stop children sleeping in the cold and mud.”
Updated
The conference is underway now. You can follow it on YouTube.
Activists and humanitarian workers in Syrian towns besieged by Syrian government forces and their allies, have urged world leaders to break the sieges or provide air drops.
In an open letter to the conference, the signatories from towns including Douma, Homs, and Deir Ezzor, write:
“As Syrian activists and humanitarians working in the besieged areas of Syria, we are witnessing first-hand a catastrophe that includes starvation, injury and death due to blockades and bombardment. We are doing the best we can to keep people alive with the little resources that we have, but we simply do not have the food, medicine or medical equipment to sustain our communities.”
It adds:
In order to really help the people in Syria we are calling on you to do the following:
Push the UN to deliver aid to break the sieges. Under three successive UN Security Council Resolutions the humanitarian organisations do not need the Syrian government’s consent in order to deliver aid, they merely need to inform the regime that they are making the deliveries. The UN must also speak out and stop underreporting sieges in Syria. The Humanitarian Response Plan, which forms the basis of your donations today, does not mention besieged communities, including Madaya. We were outraged to learn that the Syrian government, which is responsible for 99% of the aid blockades, was able to exert editorial control over the HRP. This means much of the language was diluted and paragraphs erased.
If aid trucks are not able to pass, donor governments and the UN should conduct airdrops to starving towns.These airdrops should be coordinated with humanitarians on the ground who can administer this aid and make sure it reaches the people who need it most. Russia has been conducting airdrops into Deir Ezzor but too often it falls into the hands of the regime fighters and does not reach civilians.
Britain’s former foreign secretary, David Miliband, now head of the US based International Rescue Committee, is backing calls for no-fly zones over Syria.Speaking to Sky News he said:
“The debate about no-fly zones, no bombing zones, has to move from slogans to details ...
The issues of where, how, when, over what time period, become absolutely key to any advice we can give about the humanitarian consequences of different courses of action.
What is absolutely clear is the complete lack of respect for international law by all the parties inside Syria is causing a humanitarian catastrophe of untold proportions.”
Two former British international development secretaries, Labour’s Clare Short, and Justine Greening’s Tory predecessor Andrew Mitchell said the introduction of safe havens, notably around Idlib in the north and Derra in the south, must urgently return to the agenda. “We must insist the that Syrians, driven from their homes and terrified, are protected,” they said in a joint statement.
Plans being put forward at the conference to provide “special economic zones” with low export tariffs to Europe and where up 70% of jobs would be given to Syrians, are no magic bullet, according to the Guardian’s migration correspondent Patrick Kingsley.
Writing from the Jordanian capital Amman, he points out that the zones will take time to implement, and need to be introduced alongside other approaches – including the formal resettlement of refugees within western countries.
Job creation is also no substitute for other responses to the refugee crisis ...
In the short term, the west may struggle even to agree on whether and how to increase aid to countries like Lebanon and Jordan. For all the pre-conference hype, there are concerns in the humanitarian community that Thursday’s summit may not live up to its billing.
“What we have to do is ensure that all the effort and cost which has gone into London actually comes up with something more substantive than a communique, or some vague indication of intention,” says [Andrew] Harper, [head of the UN refugee agency in Jordan]. “If you are a refugee or the Jordanian government, communiques and broad intentions are not going to give you much confidence that something will follow in the foreseeable future.
Justine Greening, the international development secretary, urged the international community to do more to help tackle the “intractable crisis” in Syria.
“We are hosting this conference because we want the rest of the world to step up,” she told the Today programme.
She added: “We’re doubling the support over the next few years ... and we are expecting and hoping that other countries around the world will join us in upping the amount they’re prepared to put against this crisis.”
She expressed frustration that other countries failed to stump up cash they have pledged at previous Syria donor conferences.
“In the course of last year we only managed to see about half the UN appeal funded,” Greening said.
Asked if the conference was an acknowledgement that it will take years before refugees can return to Syria, she said: “This has been an intractable crisis.”
Greening said the conference was about more than pledging money, and would be focused on helping refugees in countries neighbouring Syria.
“This conference wants to go historically a lot further, because what we want to do is help get Syrian children back into school and we also want to be enable Syrian refuges to be able to work in countries like Jordan and Lebanon and Turkey, but that means being prepared to put in the investment to create the jobs so that they can better support themselves.
British attitudes towards refugees are hardening, according to a ComRes poll for BBC local radio.
It found that 41% of the 2,204 people poll said Britain should accept fewer refugees from Syria and Libya.
The figure was 31% in September 2015. The poll also indicated the number of people who say the Britain is not doing enough has dropped.
The prime minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, who is also co-chairing the conference argues that it is in Europe’s self interest to do more to help Syrians.
Echoing Gordon Brown’s argument she said: “If we don’t invest more in the neighbourhood and neighbouring countries will have an even bigger problem than we have today.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said: “If you can give hope locally then there will be a possibility to sustain living there.”
She added: “We have to have a long-term plan for helping those in the area. We can only hope that people see this is both an important humanitarian [task] but also a bit of self interest for a lot of European countries.”
Solberg urged rich Gulf countries to do more to help. “I hope they all contribute much better than they did last year,” she said. “Kuwait has done a great job. They are the country that has given the most money per capita. But we need more countries in the region to dig in.”
Updated
Only an initiative as ambitious as the postwar Marshall plan can address the chaos of 12 million Syrians displaced from their homes, warns the former prime minister Gordon Brown.
Writing in the Guardian he says:
It is not just because this is the biggest humanitarian disaster since 1945 that we need a bold plan: it is because people everywhere have lost confidence in our capacity to deliver any solutions.
Confronted with this, history offers us a compelling analogue. Out of the ashes of postwar Europe, amid mass migration and destruction, came the Marshall plan, a model for enlightened self-interest. Two per cent of the resources of the world’s richest country were mobilised for the benefit of Europe’s poorest in an unprecedented outpouring of humanitarian generosity funding reconstruction.
To encourage peace, to make sure children are safe and not fodder for extremists, to slow the flow of refugees to Europe, and to prevent the emergence of a permanently scarred lost generation of young people, we must offer a grand vision equal to the challenge.
Brown warns that the refugee crisis will get even worse without a Marshall plan-scale operation to help those in the region.
If we fail to rise to the challenge of providing for families close to their homes, countless more will soon take the long-term decision to start a new life in a different continent. But if we want families to stay in the region, we must give them a reason to hold on, and we must recognise that families need more than food and shelter: the children need education and the adults jobs.
Summary
Welcome to live coverage of the London donor conference aimed at helping millions of Syrians hit by almost five years of civil war.
The conference is the result of a joint initiative by the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations.
David Cameron, who is co-chairing the conference, has pledged an additional £1.2bn to support Syrian refugees. Writing in the Guardian he says:
We are already the world’s second biggest bilateral donor to the region, and we will now more than double our total pledge to over £2.3bn – committing twice as much this year as last.
The conference aims to raise billions of pounds in aid to meet the immediate needs of 13.5 million vulnerable and displaced people inside Syria, and the 4.39 million people forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.
But the conference also has a series of ambitious policy goals for the medium and longer term. These include:
- Getting all Syrian refugee children back to school by the end of the next academic year. Currently 700,000 Syrian refugee children are not getting any education.
- Helping Syrian refugees get jobs, training and economic opportunities.
- Exploring ways of protecting civilians from violence inside Syria.
- Planning ways of stabilising and rebuilding Syria once the conflict is over.
- Breaking the logjam that has prevented $3bn in EU aid promised in October to Turkey from being delivered.
Up to 20 countries are expected to attend, including the leaders of Russia and Iran, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.
According to new analysis by Oxfam, wealthy countries have given barely half the aid money needed to help people in and around Syria and many countries are failing to do their fair share to resettle refugees.
The Norwegian Refugee Council urged Russia, China, South Korea and Japan to substantially increase their contributions to the relief effort, by highlighting how little they have provided to date.
It’s time for #Russia, #China, #SouthKorea & #Japan to substantially increase their contributions to #SupportSyrians pic.twitter.com/xTUw3Z8Tfg
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) February 3, 2016
The conference comes against a backdrop of dire warnings about the scale of refugee crisis and increasing alarm about the plight of those inside Syria, notably those starving in the besieged town of Madaya.
A United Nations human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said the starvation of Syrian civilians was a potential war crime.
Meanwhile, talks in Geneva aimed at bringing an end to the conflict have been suspended by the UN after being overshadowed by continuing Russian airstrikes which the Syrian opposition claims have targeted hospitals in Aleppo and Homs.
