World Vision calls for help for refugees facing Winter freeze

Monday, January 23, 2017

European leaders must work together to protect children fleeing war-torn countries who are among refugees caught in freezing conditions across Europe and the Middle East.

Hundreds of refugees, from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are living in miserable conditions in makeshift camps and abandoned warehouses in Serbia, as Winter temperatures fall to as low as minus 20C.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, estimates that more than 6400 refugees and migrants are stranded in Serbia due to border closures across Europe.

Justin Byworth, World Vision Brussel's Executive Director, said: "Children fleeing war-torn countries are now shivering in the cold after having arrived on Europe’s doorstep.

“Countries like Serbia, Greece, Lebanon or Turkey, among so many others, are now trying to respond to unprecedented needs as winter hits.

“European Union leaders need, now more than ever, to work together on a European response to protect children on the move.

“They have the opportunity and the power to prevent unnecessary suffering. They need to stand by countries of first entry, like Greece, so they don’t have to shoulder on their own all the responsibility for managing overcrowded reception sites.

“So far, fewer than eight per cent of 106,000 refugees that the EU agreed to relocate from Greece and Italy have been transferred to other Member States. That’s not enough.

“The EU has promised to relocate people from the Greek islands, but there are still hundreds of children trapped in unbearable conditions. Leaders need to step up and take urgent action, and recognise that everyone has a part to play.

“We work inside Syria and Iraq where many refugees are coming from, and know the horrors many children and their families have escaped.”

World Vision is among 28 aid agencies urging donor countries to redouble their efforts to support refugees fleeing Syria, one year after pledges were made at a major summit in London.

Wynn Flaten, Director of World Vision’s Syria Response, said that with war in Syria approaching its seventh year, “we need long-term commitments, rather than stop-start funding which plunges children who have fled this intractable war into further uncertainty.

“Children have been born into this crisis; it is all they have ever known, and they will need support for years to restore a sense of hope, and to provide the best possible start in life.”

Picture: Tatjana Antić Drča, World Vision

For further comment, contact: Stuart Rintoul, World Vision Australia, 0407 241 492

Media Releases, Iraq, Refugees, Syria

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