Kuwait’s Syrian aid donation eases U.N. budget shortfall...

By Stephen Dockery

The Daily Star BEIRUT: Cuts to U.N. services provided to Syrian refugees in the region as a result of dire budget shortfalls have been temporarily eased, a UNHCR official said Wednesday, after Kuwait came through on its $300 million pledge last week. The U.N. warned last week that lack of funding would soon force them to cease providing basic aid including food and health care. “The Kuwaiti contribution has come at a critical time when U.N. agencies are increasingly carrying a very heavy burden with dwindling resources,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees official Ninette Kelley said in a statement. Before last Thursday’s announcement by Kuwait, the U.N.’s Syria relief programs were just 38 percent funded. The donation increases that to more than half. It will make a “significant impact on funding levels in Lebanon,” Kelley said. UNHCR officials told The Daily Star it was too early to say how many of the cutbacks would be avoided by the new cash inflow, but they would likely know by the end of the week. The U.N. is aiding 428,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Government officials and local aid workers say there are actually around 650,000 Syrian refugees in the country. The U.N. provides most of those 428,000 refugees with monthly food aid, a program they said would need to stop unless they got more money. United Arab Emirates and Saudi aid organizations also run operations in the Bekaa Valley, providing medical and food aid to Syrian refugees. A number of countries have pledged aid to Syrian refugees at international donor conferences in the past months, but much of that money has not materialized. Lebanese government officials say the country’s services will suffer unless they receive funds to help the refugees and keep the country’s various structures running. Earlier Wednesday, Romania said it was ready to fulfill its financial pledge to Lebanon in order to help the country cope with the rising number of Syrian refugees. “I informed [caretaker] Prime Minister Najib Mikati of the Romanian government’s commitment to contribute in helping the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. My country had already announced its contribution during the Kuwait donor conference,” Romanian Ambassador to Lebanon, Daniel Tanase, told reporters. “We are ready to offer this contribution directly to the Lebanese government through the Higher Relief Committee, and the money will be in Lebanon in the next few weeks”. Tanase, who did not specify the amount Romania was contributing, said it was the international community’s duty to help Lebanon and its host families deal with the growing number of refugees. Also Wednesday, government officials in Jbeil met to discuss the refugee situation, while in Sidon, MP Bahia Hariri hosted a meeting to tackle the same subject.