Breaking Down the Numbers of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
About the Author: Caroline Raclin is a Special Assistant in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) at the U.S. Department of State. She traveled with a joint State Department-USAID delegation to Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait January 22-31, 2013.
It was near midnight. We were driving in the desert with no headlights, and Syria was 20 feet to my left. To the right was a mass of shapes — it took me a minute to realize I was looking at 850 Syrians who had just crossed safely into Jordan. One man was carrying designer luggage normally seen in airplane cabins; one girl had no shoes. I walked amongst these scared, war-numbed people, and it hit me that this was only a tiny portion of those leaving Syria.
Roughly 763,000 people have fled Syria — 240,000 to Jordan — and an estimated 2.5 million are displaced internally. Before that night, those numbers seemed horrific, but had little real meaning to me. They are round statistics, indicators of an escalating war. But after hearing a woman recall her husband’s death and a family describe their village being leveled by barrels of explosives, I better understood the scale… more »
On January 27 and 28, 2013, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg visited Syrian refugees in Jordan. They visited the Zaatari refugee camp, a refugee processing center at a Syria-Jordan border crossing, and a food voucher distribution center.
The United States is committed to helping the innocent children, women, and… more »
Helping the Syrian People in Difficult Circumstances
About the Author: Robert S. Ford serves as U.S. Ambassador to Syria.
I am pleased to announce that I’ll be visiting the region this week with colleagues from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. We’ll visit Turkey and Jordan to see the conditions of Syrian refugees.
At the same time, we’ll sit with governments, international organizations and NGOs working to help the Syrian refugees.
I also hope to have the opportunity to meet with many Syrians and hear directly from them about their circumstances.
Last week, when I was in Jordan, I was watching television and I saw a report on Al Arabiya about a Syrian father and his daughter, a young child, who died from the bitter cold — a very tragic story that affected me deeply. I shared this story when I returned to Washington, and I think… more »
Syrian Refugees: Trying to Make It in Lebanon and Jordan
The recent visits of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and actress/director and Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Angelina Jolie to the Za’atri camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan drew attention to the plight of the refugees, and will hopefully increase support by individual and government donors to aid programs. But focusing on refugee camps shows only one aspect of life in exile. Of the half million Syrian refugees, some two-thirds live in cities and villages and not in refugee camps.
I traveled in late November to Jordan and Lebanon and met five families who had fled the violence in Syria and were trying to survive as refugees outside of camps.
In Amman, we were welcomed by two Syrian brothers who had married two sisters. One couple had five children. The other couple was expecting their first child. I asked how… more »
Assistant Secretary Anne C. Richard to Travel to Jordan and Lebanon
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC November 23, 2012
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard will travel to Jordan and Lebanon from November 25-30, 2012.
In Jordan, Assistant Secretary Richard will attend the Advisory Commission Meetings of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA). At the meetings, she will hold bilateral discussions with refugee-hosting governments and other members of the Advisory Commission. She will also meet with Government of Jordan, international, and non-governmental officials to discuss policy and program issues regarding displaced Syrians in Jordan, and Iraqi and Palestinian refugees.
In Lebanon, Assistant Secretary Richard will meet with Government of Lebanon, international, and non-governmental officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in Lebanon and the situation of Syrian, Iraqi, and Palestinian refugees.
For information about this visit, please contact PRM’s Public Affairs Advisor Deborah Sisbarro PRM-Press-DL@state.gov or (202) 453-9339.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II in New York, New York on September 26, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announces additional humanitarian aid in response to violence in Syria while visiting a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan on September 5, 2012. [Go to http://video.state.gov for more video and text transcript.]
State Department Welcomes 2012 TechWomen to San Francisco
Yesterday, the 2012 class of TechWomen arrived in San Francisco to participate in an international exchange that leverages technology as a means to empower women and girls from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Yemen. Forty-one female emerging leaders in the technology field from the Middle East and North Africa will be paired with American counterparts for a five-week mentoring program. Click here to learn more.
Launched by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2011, TechWomen builds on her vision of “smart power.” It embraces the full range of diplomatic tools, in this case technology, to bring people together for greater understanding and to empower women and… more »
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announces additional humanitarian aid in response to violence in Syria while visiting a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan on September 5, 2012. [Go to http://video.state.gov for more video and text transcript.]
Additional Humanitarian Assistance in Response to Violence in Syria
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC September 5, 2012
The United States remains deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis caused by violence in Syria. Over 100,000 refugees have flooded into neighboring countries in the month of August, stretching host country capacity. We commend the generosity of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq in assisting approximately 240,000 Syrians who have fled.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated that as many as 2.5 million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance, more than double the number that was assessed in March 2012, and over 1.2 million people have been internally displaced.
To help meet the growing humanitarian need, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah announced today in Jordan that the United States is providing an additional $21 million to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). Of this new funding, $14.3 million will provide food assistance to conflict-affected people inside Syria and $6.7 million to support Syrians displaced to neighboring countries.
With this new assistance, the United States is providing a total of more than $100 million for humanitarian activities both inside Syria and in neighboring countries: MORE
![A Syrian refugee stands on top of a water tank at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, January 9, 2013. [AP File Photo]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130213202930im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0210_syria_refugees_m.jpg)
![Syrian refugees look out of a vehicle's window just after crossing the border from Syria to Turkey, in Cilvegozu, Turkey, December 20, 2012. [AP Photo]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130213202930im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0122_syria_refugees_in_turkey_m.jpg)
![Newly-arrived Syrian refugees being taken by Jordanian military bus to Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq city, after they crossed the border from Tal Shehab city in Syria, through the Al Yarmouk River valley, into Thnebeh town, in Ramtha, Jordan, Sept. 5, 2012. [AP File Photo]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130213202930im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_1217_syria_refugees_m.jpg)
![U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II in New York, New York on September 26, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130213202930im_/http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb0nxkBfrJ1qcug8io1_500.jpg)
![Sanae Baatti, a Moroccan mentee, and Taghrid Samak, an American mentor, participate in TechWomen 2012, an international exchange that leverages technology as a means to empower women and girls, in San Francisco, California, September 5, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130213202930im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0906_tech_women_sf_m.jpg)
