GENEVA / SYRIA IRAQ DISPLACED

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that with winter fast approaching, some 15 million displaced Syrians and Iraqi will be facing increased hardships. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:13
• Production Date: 23 October 2015
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MELISSA FLEMING
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: DISPLACED PERSONS; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
• Geographic Subject: IRAQ; SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 1482029
• Parent Id: 1482029
• Alternate Title: unifeed151023b

Description

STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA IRAQ DISPLACED
TRT: 01:13
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 OCTOBER 2015 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Fleming, UNHCR Spokesperson :
“Today, refugees are now more vulnerable than ever: their savings long gone, their jewellery and other valuables sold off, increasing numbers mired in debt and have barely enough to cover basic needs. They are skipping meals, begging, pulling children out of school, or resorting to high risk or degrading jobs. “
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Amin Awad, UN Refugee Coordinator for the Syria and Iraq situations:
“Central Iraq, and the areas controlled by ISIS in particular, are the most challenging areas for the international community, and our local partners in Iraq or the Government of Iraq, we have been unable to access some of these areas.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Amin Awad, UN Refugee Coordinator for the Syria and Iraq situations:
“It contributes to the dynamics of displacement, to the environment of continuous movement that we have seen now in Syria over the last 5 years.”
8. Wide shot, press room

Storyline

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that with winter fast approaching, some 15 million displaced Syrians and Iraqi will be facing increased hardships.

For many Syrians, this will be their fifth winter in exile. In Iraq, more than three million (3.2) internally displaced people (IDPs) have been uprooted by fighting since the start of last year.

UNHCR Spokesperson Melissa Fleming, told reporters at a briefing in Geneva today that “today, refugees are now more vulnerable than ever: their savings long gone, their jewellery and other valuables sold off, increasing numbers mired in debt and have barely enough to cover basic needs. They are skipping meals, begging, pulling children out of school, or resorting to high risk or degrading jobs.”

In many cases, it is the simple the lack of funds that is preventing the UN refugee agency from being able to improve living conditions, said the agency’s Refugee Coordinator for Syria and Iraq, Amin Awad.

UNHCR and partners are facing a USD 66 million shortfall only for the winter aid programme, he said.

While the UN agency says it is able to reach some 1 million displaced persons in the North of Iraq, access to some 2 million people in the ISIS -controlled central areas of the country is severely limited.

Awad said “central Iraq, and the areas controlled by ISIS in particular, are the most challenging areas for the international community, and our local partners in Iraq or the Government of Iraq, we have been unable to access some of these areas.”

Asked by a reporter about the effect in Syria of Russian airstrikes, Amin said that airstrikes from all parties “contribute to the dynamics of displacement, to the environment of continuous movement that we have seen now in Syria over the last 5 years.”

The UNHCR also raised alarms about newly gathered testimony of abuse and violence aimed at refugees and migrants, many of them fleeing the fighting in Syria and Iraq, who are on the move across Europe.