Europe’s limited help to Syrians criticised by Amnesty

Amnesty International castigated Europe yesterday for failing to play its part in providing a safe haven for Syrian refugees as three infants died from cold in snow-blanketed makeshift camps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where only half the pledged aid has been delivered.

In a briefing paper, An International Failure: the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Amnesty reveals that EU states have agreed to receive only 12,000 of the "most vulnerable refugees", a "pitiful" 0.5 per cent of the 2.3 million who have fled the country.

Ten EU member states have proposed resettlement or humanitarian admission to Syrians. Germany promises to take 10,000, or 80 per cent of EU places. France will take 500, Spain 30. Eighteen member states, including Britain and Italy, refuse to accept any, says Amnesty.

This has prompted 55,000 desperate Syrians to travel to Europe by boat or across land and claim asylum. Hundreds from the Middle East, Africa and Asia die each year trying to land in Europe.

Most Syrians who "manage to break through the barricades" head for Sweden or Germany, which have offered the most help. Sweden has received 20,490 new applications, Germany 16,100 through to October 2013. Fewer than 1,000 have sought asylum in each of Greece, Italy and Cyprus.

'Deplorable treatment'
At the EU's two main "gateways", Greece and Bulgaria, Syrians "are met with deplorable treatment", states Amnesty. Greek police have sent boats carrying Syrians back to Turkey. Bulgaria, which hosts 5,000, houses them in shipping containers and tents in a camp where there is "limited access to food, bedding or medicine".

Amnesty calls on Europe to increase quotas for Syrians, provide "legal, safe passage" to refugees, and give aid to Lebanon and Jordan, the countries housing most Syrian refugees.

The Amnesty brief coincided with a study, Education Interrupted, carried out by Unicef, the UN High Commission for Refugees and Save the Children. The study describes the "staggering decline in education where primary school attendance rates stood at 97 per cent before the conflict began in 2011".

Of the 4.8 million Syrian children of school age, 2.2 million in Syria have dropped out because children are terrified or have fled the country. Twenty per cent of schools cannot function due to damage or destruction or sheltering displaced people. The most affected areas are conflict zones where attendance rates may be only 6 per cent in Idlib in the north, Deir al-Zor in the east, Dera'a in the south, and rural Damascus.

Of 1.2 million Syrian refugee children, 500,000-600,000 are not in school. Host countries cannot accommodate Syrian children already on their soil and expect the numbers of refugees to rise dramatically by the end of next year.

The authors recommend long-term planning for refugee children, doubling of international investment, and pressing all parties to cease using schools for military purposes and shelters for the displaced.

Chemical killings
Separately, a UN report has concluded that chemical weapons were used in five of seven incidents investigated by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The August 21st attack that killed civilians in eastern Ghouta near Damascus was the worst incident. Three small-scale attacks targeted government soldiers and one civilians.

Following the August incident, the US threatened to strike Syria, prompting Damascus to sign the accord prohibiting chemical weapons and agree to destroy its arsenal.