WUNRN
Internal Displacement Monitoring Center – IDMC
SYRIA – FORSAKEN INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDP’S) INSIDE A FRAGMENTED STATE – WOMEN & CHILDREN
There were at least 7.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Syria as of 21 November 2014.
With the cold winter months fast approaching and reports of
food donations being drastically cut for millions of people in need, dire
distress faces Syrian refugee women and children.
IDP Family at Newroz Refugee Camp, Syria. Photo: IRIN
In 2013, 9,500 Syrians were displaced per day
on average. By July 2014, the total number of internally displaced people
(IDPs) reached 6.4 million, a third of the entire population of the country. An
additional three million Syrians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
A stable middle-income country that hosted refugees from all over the region
and beyond just four years ago, Syria is now experiencing a displacement and
protection crisis of a magnitude the world has not seen for many years.
The Syrian authorities have not only failed
to protect civilians from or during displacement, but their deliberate
targeting of non-combatants has also been the main cause for their massive
displacement. Sieges, checkpoints and international border restrictions have
prevented civilians in need of protection from fleeing to safer areas, either
within or outside the country. For their part, several fundamentalist Islamist
groups have also forced civilians to flee and carried out human rights
violations that have led to their displacement.
Aid agencies have done their best to respond
to the overwhelming humanitarian impact of the conflict, both in the country
and from neighbouring states. However, the politicisation of aid by
international and regional actors has prevented them from fulfilling their
basic functions. It has prevented them from being able to respond to the needs
of all IDPs, irrespective of their locations or political allegiances, in
conformity with the humanitarian principle of the neutrality of humanitarian
assistance. The Syrian authorities have severely restricted the work of
international humanitarian agencies and, except for a few cases, have prevented
them from delivering aid to rebel-held areas across front lines and
international borders.
Access restrictions and cumbersome procedures
imposed by the Syrian authorities on humanitarian agencies have hampered their
monitoring of IDPs figures and movements. This has led to inconsistent,
unreliable and patchy data and contributed to an underestimation of IDPs’ needs.
Tensions between international agencies over their relations with the Syrian authorities,
perceived by NGOs active in rebel-held areas as compromising, have created
mistrust among the different actors. This has, in turn exacerbated coordination
constraints. All these factors, compounded by severe funding shortcomings, have
gravely hampered the humanitarian response.
Given the repeated failure of UN initiatives
to facilitate a political solution to the initial crisis and to prevent it from
spiralling into a full civil war, the prospects for durable solutions for IDPs
are very remote. They are further reduced by economic collapse and
fragmentation of the country along sectarian lines, making the prospect of
significant return of IDPs hypothetical.