NEW YORK (Al Jazeera/Xinhua) – More Syrian children are in need than at any time since the country’s devastating Western-backed war erupted over a decade ago, but funding for them is “dwindling”, the United Nations has warned.
“Syria’s children have suffered for far too long and should not suffer any longer,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement, noting that 12.3 million were in need of aid both inside the country and in the wider region where they had fled.
“More than 6.5 million children in Syria are in need of assistance, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the crisis, more than 11 years ago,” it added.
Meanwhile, “in Syria’s neighboring countries, strained by political instability and fragility, nearly 5.8 million children depend on assistance, their lives riddled with poverty and hardship”.
“Children’s needs, both inside Syria and in neighboring countries, are growing,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s Middle East chief.
“Many families struggle to make ends meet. Prices of basic supplies, including food, are skyrocketing, partially as a result of the crisis in Ukraine.”
Children are among the most vulnerable and the UN warned they are bearing the brunt of the impact.
UNICEF said they faced a severe cash shortfall that is affecting their ability to provide aid.
“Funding for humanitarian operations is meanwhile fast dwindling,” Khodr said. “UNICEF has received less than half of its funding requirements for this year.”
Syrian officials have slammed the West, particularly the U.S., for coercive measures that have turned into “economic terrorism” targeting the Syrian citizens in their right to life, health, education, and development in all of its forms.
The Syrian officials also accuse U.S. troop s of destroying oil and gas infrastructure in the Euphrates region, saying the Syrian government is facilitating aid deliveries while facing what they call a systematic terrorist war.
Furthermore, while Turkey has announced plans for the repatriation of around one million Syrian refugees to their homeland, refugee experts warn that the present security conditions in the conflict-ridden Arab country are not conducive for the asylum seekers to rebuild their lives.
The warning was issued after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was building homes and public facilities in parts of Syria held by Turkish-backed militants to support the new plan of encouraging the “voluntary” returns of one million Syrian refugees.
Under the plan, the Turkish government would seek to accommodate the Syrians in 100,000 houses in the militant-held northern Syria province of Idlib.
“There are still clashes in certain parts of north Syria, and it is not favorable for the Syrians to return at this point,” Metin Corabatir, an expert on refugee issues, warned in an interview with China’s official news agency Xinhua.
Experts also said anti-refugee sentiments are high in Turkey, which currently hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees and 1.7 million other foreign nationals.