Nations Pledge Aid For Syrian Refugees To Unburden Host Countries

number of countries, including the United States and the Gulf States, pledged millions of dollars in humanitarian aid at an international donors' conference for Syria on Tuesday as refugee-hosting countries, including Turkey, have increased their calls on the international community to share the economic burden of accommodating the millions of refugees scattered across the Middle East.

The plight of refugees was once again thrown into the spotlight after the United Nations issued an appeal for $8.4 billion in commitments this year -- the organization's largest appeal yet for the war-ravaged country.

The US pledged $507 million in humanitarian aid after Kuwait, which is hosting the third annual conference, opened the donors' conference in Kuwait City with a pledge of $500 million. Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said the Syrian conflict is the "biggest humanitarian crisis in recent history."

The civil war, now in its fifth year, has killed at least 220,000 people and displaced 11 million, according to UN figures. Of the displaced, nearly 4 million have been forced to flee to nearby countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, stretching resources there to the limit.

"The Syrian people's plight has spilled over to hosting countries, exhausting their resources, and it is our role to support the host countries," al-Sabah said.

As the crisis in Syria continues unabated, the UN says $2.9 billion is needed in 2015 for Syrians inside the country and $5.5 billion for those who have fled to the five surrounding countries.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the Syrian crisis has created the "the largest displacement crisis in the world" and that 12.2 million people -- just under half of them children -- are in "dire need of aid."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said the situation is "at a tipping point" and "unsustainable."

Guterres said the current UN appeal is different from previous ones because it recognizes both the immediate and longer-term imperatives of responding to the crisis.

With the unabated flow of new Syrian refugees over the course of the past four years, Turkey has now become the world's largest refugee-hosting country and has spent more than $6 billion on direct assistance to refugees, according to Guterres.

Overwhelmed by the large number of refugees, Turkey has now established militarized zones along the 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria and implemented more strict regulations to supervise the flow of civilians and fighters crossing the border.

Ahead of this year's gathering, the German government said it will pledge $277 million in new aid while Kuwaiti state media say local charities and aid organizations pledged another $506 million just before the conference began.

Gulf envoys addressing the conference said the United Arab Emirates pledged $100 million, Saudi Arabia $60 million and Norway $93 million. The US delegation at the conference is led by Samantha Power, Washington's ambassador to the UN.

At last year's donors' conference, about $2.4 billion was pledged despite the UN calling for $6.5 billion. In 2013, some $1.5 billion was pledged, less than half of the UN's appeal for $4.4 billion.

The OCHA's Financial Tracking Service (FTS) said in November that nearly a quarter of last year's pledges -- $585 million -- had not been fulfilled.

In his speech at the Kuwait conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that more of last year's pledges have since come through -- up to about 90 percent of what was pledged -- and emphasized that Syrians need more than just sympathy, they need commitments.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)