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STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA UPDATE
TRT: 2.18
SOURCE:CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 MAY 2013, UNITED NATIONS GENEVA HEADQUARTERS
FILE – RECENT, UNITED NATIONS GENEVA HEADQUARTERS
1. External shot, Palais des Nations, Geneva
21 MAY 2013, UNITED NATIONS GENEVA HEADQUARTERS
2. Wide shot, Salle III, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator, UNHCR:
"It is extraordinary that all of a sudden from receiving two thousand refugees a day, the number has dropped to close to zero, to have five or nine a day. Something is happening there. We hear the sounds of fightng very close on the other side."
4. Cutaway, conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator, UNHCR:
"We are talking to everyone on the ground. We are adding our voice to say there is something going on there. If people are not crossing then we want to make sure that the principle of respect of asylum is respected."
6. Cutaway, conference room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator, UNHCR:
"The movement of refugees across the border is obviously a direct impact of the increased level of insecurity inside Syria, and in particular, in areas of conflict where we're increasingly seeing civilians, entire villages actually leaving , departing. telling us that they found themselves with no other option than to head towards the border. Most of the refugees who have crossed have already been displaced at least once, twice or three times."
8. Cutaway, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator, UNHCR:
"We are at a point where the needs outnumber by far, the actual resources we have available to respond to these needs. So, with increased numbers, we are at a point with the humanitarian organisations where we're basically, almost on a daily basis, we have to do this prioritization or this decision as to where to allocate the resources and i have to tell you, it is really a heartbreaking process."
10. Cutaway, conference room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Panos Moumtzis, Syria Regional Refugee Coordinator, UNHCR:
"The longer the crisis goes without a political situation, the bigger the consequences are in terms of humanitarian impact. The fact that we're talking today about 38 percent, almost 40 percent of the Syrian population being affected, and if you follow this number over the last 24 months, even just the last 12 months, even just since January this is rapidly deteriorating."
12. Wide shot, panel of speakers
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said today (21 May) that the number of Syrian refugees flooding into Jordan had suddenly fallen from several thousand a day to a handful, warning that fighting may be preventing people in need from arriving.
Panos Moumtzis, who heads the UN refugee agency's response to the Syria crisis, told reporters in Geneva: "it is extraordinary that all of a sudden from receiving two thousand refugees a day, the number has dropped to close to zero.”
He said that since February, between 1,000 and 3,000 refugees had crossed the border every day, but that "in the last four nights, this number has dropped to almost zero," with only between five and nine people crossing each day.
Moumtzis said: "we are talking to everyone on the ground. We are adding our voice to say there is something going on there. If people are not crossing then we want to make sure that the principle of respect of asylum is respected."
UNHCR does not have any staff on the Syrian side of the border, but staff members in Jordan could hear increased fighting and were hearing reports from people crossing the border that battles in the area were intensifying.
