Switzerland - World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing today announced the successful completion of a relief operation to provide more than 75,000 people with food and humanitarian relief items.

Statement by the Heads of WFP, UNHCR, UNICEF and IOM

“Today the World Food Programme, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and UNICEF completed an urgent relief operation to provide a one-month ration of desperately needed food and hygiene supplies to more than 75,000 people who are trapped along a land embankment, or berm, at the Syria-Jordan border. 

“Unable either to cross the border or turn back, the situation facing these women, men and children has grown more dire by the day.  Sheltering in makeshift tents in harsh desert conditions with temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius and sudden sand storms, they are without sufficient food and have barely enough water to survive. Life-saving health care is also urgently required. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and the sick are especially vulnerable.  

“We thank the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for supporting this critical operation, and we look forward to further efforts to reach people at the berm with humanitarian assistance in time to save their lives.”

Background:

An estimated 75,000 people fleeing conflict in Syria are living in makeshift shelters along the border area, or the berm, that runs along the Syria-Jordan border. Jordan sealed the berm area more than a month ago following an attack at a Jordanian border post. Before the border closure, UN agencies and aid organizations regularly delivered aid from Jordan’s territory to Syrians stranded on the other side of the berm.

For further information please contact:

Leonard Doyle, IOM/Geneva, Tel. +41792857123, Email: ldoyle@iom.int
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +393467600521, Email: jane.howard@wfp.org
Ariane Rummery, UNHCR/Geneva, Tel. +41792007617, Email: rummery@unhcr.org
Marixie Mercado, UNICEF/New York, Tel. +12123267133, Email: mmercado@unicef.org