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INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS “FAILED” SYRIA WITH AID APPEALS LESS THAN HALF-FUNDED, SAYS OXFAM REPORT

10th September, 2014

Mother and child during an air raid in Syria. PICTURE: Sam Tarling/Oxfam,

The international community has failed Syria with the more than $US7.7 billion in appeals launched to help people affected by the violence in the war-torn country less than half-funded, according to a new report from Oxfam.

The report, A Fairer Deal for Syrians, shows that UN appeals launched to help Syria – among a number of organisations running such appeals – are only 40 per cent funded. It notes that already some humanitarian agencies have had to cut their programmes thanks to a lack of funding.

In the report, Oxfam have provided a calculation of what a range of donor countries should be giving as their "fair share" to help Syria and contrast this with what percentage of it they have contributed so far.

While some countries have already given what Oxfam deem more than their fair share – the UK, for example, has contributed 141 per cent of what the organisation believes is a fair amount, Denmark, 163 per cent, and the United Arab Emirates, 121 per cent – many others have fallen short.

The US has only given 60 per cent of what Oxfam says is fair while Australia has only contributed 27 per cent, France, 33 per cent, Italy, 30 per cent and Russia, only one per cent.

In Australia, Oxfam has called on the government to give at least $70 million to the Syrian crisis appeals. While that figure is still below the $117.6 million Oxfam says is a fair amount for the country to give, it is more than double the $31 million the government has so far contributed. More than 22,000 people have signed a petition urging the Australian Government to do so and Oxfam is calling on others to join them.

Stephanie Cousins, Oxfam Australia’s humanitarian advocacy lead, said the international community’s response to the crisis in Syria is "falling far short on every front".

"The international community’s inadequate approach to the Syrian conflict is failing the millions of people who have fled torture, massacres and barrel bombs and those facing a terrifying future inside Syria," she said. "They have been abandoned by the international community and are living in desperate conditions in a daily battle to survive."

The report shows that more than 190,000 people have been killed in the conflict and 6.5 million people displaced inside Syria with at least a further three million people fleeing the country.

Oxfam has called on the international community to help with the growing refugee crisis. It said Australia, Germany and Austria were the only wealthy countries which had so far offered to relocate "their fair share of Syrian refugees".

Noting that arms continue to be supplied to parties in the Syrian conflict by other nations, the report also advocates for the introduction of a UN Security Council arms embargo. Oxfam Australia have urged the Australian Government to play a role in supporting such a call.

~ www.oxfam.org.au

– DAVID ADAMS

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