Foreign Minister Bob Carr today pledged a further $10 million in humanitarian assistance for people affected by the worsening conflict in Syria.
This pledge was announced at a meeting of the international community on the Syrian crisis convened by the UN in Kuwait on 30 January.
As the fighting continues in Syria, increasing numbers of people are at grave risk with nearly a fifth of Syrians now urgently in need of shelter, food and health care.
Access to basic health care in Syria is worsening, with 67 per cent of public hospitals in Syria damaged or destroyed.
Australia is allocating $4 million through the World Food Programme to deliver essential food supplies to 1.5 million Syrians. A further $2 million will go to other humanitarian agencies to provide emergency health and medical assistance in Syria and $4 million will to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Syrians continue to flee the conflict with more than 2,000 crossing the border daily into neighbouring Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq where resources are increasingly stretched. The $4 million contribution to UNHCR will provide shelter, food and water, and medical services to help more than 660,000 people taking refuge in neighbouring countries.
This new contribution brings Australia’s total humanitarian assistance in response to the crisis in Syria to $41.5 million since June 2011.
