Jordan King Says Help for Syria Refugees 'Desperately Needed'
Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday called on the international community to increase its assistance for the tide of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.
"I urge once more a stepped-up world response to the Syrian crisis," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"The weakest refugees are struggling now just to survive this year's harsh winter. More international support is desperately needed," the king said.
"I cannot emphasize enough the challenges that we are all facing, both in Jordan and Lebanon, and it's only going to get worse."
The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that more than 6,400 Syrian refugees had fled the country's escalating violence to Jordan's Zaatari camp in the past 24 hours, bringing to over 30,000 the number of arrivals since the start of the month.
Jordan says it is hosting more than 300,000 Syrian refugees and the United Nations has predicted that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries will double to 1.1 million by June if the civil war does not end.
"What we're asking from the international community is not just to help us with the refugee problems and their challenges as they face this harsh winter, but also stockpiling in Jordan so that we can move supplies across the borders to keep people in place," the king said.
He also said that lessons needed to be learned from other countries that have hosted large numbers of refugees, so that "radicalism doesn't come in and take over those communities."
Source: Agence France Presse
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