Ahead of a key international conference on supporting Syria and the region, taking place in Brussels today and tomorrow (9-10th May), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is calling on the EU and donors from the wider international community to ramp up their efforts to address the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria.

Now in its twelfth year of conflict, humanitarian needs in Syria have reached an all-time high. Today, some 14.6 million people – 70 per cent of the country’s population – need help to meet their basic survival needs. At the same time, costs continue to soar, with the price of basic foodstuffs like bread, rice and oil almost doubling in the last year.

Despite an additional 1.2 million people in Syria requiring humanitarian aid in 2022, both levels of funding and the political attention required to address the crisis are diminishing. At the end of 2021, the humanitarian response for Syria remained less than half funded, with just 46 per cent of required funds committed – the lowest levels seen in six years.

With needs rising, it is vital that aid can reach all those who need it. Yet since 2020, UN Security Council deliberations over a vital mechanism to bring aid into Syria through neighbouring countries have resulted in the number of authorised border crossing points being reduced from four to just one, completely cutting off UN cross-border assistance to the Northeast. Millions of Syrians in the Northwest now rely mostly on assistance that is delivered through this one crossing. In July this year the UN cross-border operation will end if it is not re-authorised by the UN Security Council, the humanitarian impact of which will likely prove devastating to families already on the brink.

The IRC is calling on the EU to use its convening role at the Brussels Conference to galvanise donors to ramp up funding to Syria and the region, and to collectively chart a course to ensure humanitarian aid can reach all those who need it in the country through the most effective and direct routes.

Imogen Sudbery, the IRC Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy in Europe, says:

“As the international community mobilises to tackle the crisis in Ukraine, we cannot forget the staggering level of humanitarian needs in Syria. With continued fighting in many areas, more than 12 million people in the country are acutely food insecure, and more than 800,000 children malnourished.”