London conference is aimed at getting aid for work and education opportunities to cut risk of people falling prey to extremism

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

World leaders are heading to London for a conference aimed at raising $9bn for Syrian refugees and preventing the creation of a permanent underclass of uneducated, restless and jobless Syrians living in countries bordering their homeland.

Organisers want the aid to be diverted from food handouts towards work and education opportunities for Syrians in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

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British officials acknowledge that unless refugees are offered the possibility of a better life both in and outside the camps, there is an increased risk that they will fall prey to extremism or give up waiting to return to their homeland, instead making the perilous journey to Europe. There is also a growing acceptance that countries neighbouring Syria cannot carry the burden without substantially more help.

David Cameron, Angela Merkel and the leaders of Norway and Kuwait have jointly convened the conference to be held on Thursday. They have pointed out that the 2015 appeal for Syrian refugees failed to meet half its targets or pledges, and say that in 2016 the goal must be to get 1 million more Syrians into education and tens of thousands into jobs by offering them work permits.

Syria’s neighbours, who have hosted 4.6 million refugees between them, have seen their labour markets badly disrupted and have been reluctant to offer permits.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Syrian refugee children leave a makeshift school in a displacement camp in Lebanon. Photograph: Bilal Hussein/AP

The UN children’s agency has said that $1.4bn will be needed to rescue what could become a lost generation both in Syria and in exile.

Delegates at a European Bank of Reconstruction Development conference on Wednesday will discuss how the private sector can boost investment in Lebanon and Turkey. The voices of refugees will be heard at a civil society conference attended by the UK’s international development secretary, Justine Greening.

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The London conference is expected to discuss the lack of humanitarian access inside Syria and will spill over into discussions of domestic Syrian politics and how to end the nearly five-year war there.



The official opposition delegation – in Geneva for stuttering peace talks – insist that sieges and an increasingly intensive Russian bombing campaign must come to a halt. The delegation says Russia is using the cover of the talks to buy time to strengthen the position of the Syrian government on the battlefield.



The UN Syrian envoy overseeing the talks, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that the talks may collapse. He said on Tuesday: “If there is a failure this time after we tried twice at conferences in Geneva, for Syria there will be no more hope.”

Rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo are being targeted by Russia in what looks like an attempt to encircle the city and close the narrow corridors that provide supplies from Turkey.

The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has repeatedly criticised the Russian bombing campaign, saying the strikes are aimed at Syrian rebels and not Islamic State positions.

The Norwegian Refugee Council published data showing how Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan are coming under pressure from host governments that are in turn running out of resources to help.



The council said:

• In Lebanon an estimated 70% of the refugee population – that is more than 700,000 people – have lost the legal right to stay, making it more difficult to access schooling or work permits.

• In Jordan 250,000 Syrian refugees are still estimated to be without an updated government registration.



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• About 70% of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon live in poverty – that is more than 1 million people. In Lebanon, more than 200,000 registered school-age refugee children are not in school; in Jordan it is four in 10.

• In Jordan, 50% of Syrian refugeessaid they intended to leave because they saw no future in the country.

“What we are witnessing now is a collective failure to deliver the necessary support to the region,” said Jan Egeland, who heads the NRC and is a former Norwegian diplomat. “We are witnessing a total collapse of international solidarity with millions of war victims.”

Meanwhile, Merkel has been pressing Turkey to do more to prevent the flow of refugees from Syria into Europe. If the numbers are reduced by March, Merkel has promised to take a quota of Turkish refugees.