Humanitarian chief in country says unless political action is taken to stop fighting, ‘human train’ will continue through winter

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Another million Syrians will flee their homes before the end of the year if the war continues unabated, a senior UN official has said.



Yacoub el-Hillo, the humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said that unless urgent action was taken to resolve the escalating conflict, refugees would also continue to flow out of the region.

He said that more than a million people had already been displaced from their homes already in 2015, and called for greater international aid efforts to help Syrians survive the winter in their own country.

“Unless something big is done to resolve this conflict through political means, the human train that has started moving out of Syria and the neighbourhood will continue to be running for many months to come,” he said.



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He said that because neighbouring countries, which have absorbed the bulk of the refugees, were now at crisis point, “Europe will be faced with a refugee situation similar to the one that led to the creation of [the UN Refugee Agency] UNHCR in 1950”.



“The World Food Programme has zero dollars to provide food to 5 million people inside Syria come November.”



The absolute minimum amount needed to provide food for those affected for the rest of the year was $738m, he said.



“We still have the opportunity to invest and help many Syrians stay in Syria. Otherwise this human train will continue running in all directions, including Europe,” Hillo said.



Since the conflict began in 2011, 250,000 people have been killed and half of the country’s population have fled their homes, 7.6 million people within the country and 4 million beyond its borders.



Hillo said the intensification of fighting in Aleppo and Deraa was of particular concern. “These are two places in the north and in the south where I fear we will be witnessing more human movements as a result of the intensification of the fighting,” he said.