U.N. Says Syria Refugee Aid at 'Breaking Point'

Aid operations for Syrian refugees have reaching breaking point in the face of a massive funding shortfall, amid fears that the number of people fleeing the war-torn nation could triple, a senior U.N. official warned Tuesday.

"We want to ring the alarm bell. We are at a breaking point," said Panos Moumtzis, regional aid coordinator for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

"Clearly we're reaching a point where the increase in the crisis, the rapid deterioration, and the resources available, do not match," he told reporters in Geneva.

"It is our duty to respond," he added.

Moumtzis underlined that just $400 million has been provided from the $1.5 billion pledged for Syria-related aid operations at an international conference held in Kuwait in January.

"We're appealing to parliaments, we're appealing to governments, we're appealing to donors to go beyond their available funding in Western countries. And we'd also like to see the generosity announced in the Gulf to materialize as quickly as possible. Because we cannot wait any more," he said.

Almost $1.0 billion of the total sum on the table in January was pledged by Gulf nations, including $300 million each from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

A total of 1.3 million people have now fled Syria since protests which started in March 2011 against the regime of Bashar Assad and have spiraled into a sectarian-tinged civil war.

Underlining the inexorably rising violence, Moumtzis noted that just 12 months ago, the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries was 30,000.

Some 200,000 people are now spilling across Syria's borders every month in search of safety in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, placing a huge strain on the countries' ability to cope.

"We fear that if the current level of insecurity, and the current situation of no political solution continues, we may see a doubling or a tripling, or more, of the number of refugees that we have today in the region," said Moumtzis.

Three-quarters of the refugees are women and children, he underlined, warning that there was an increasing risk of their being preyed upon by prostitution and child labor gangs.