Amin Awad, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Bureau of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), says the refugee crisis across Syria and Iraq has reached unprecedented levels and warns that in the absence of a political solution, the international community should increase the funding of humanitarian efforts in the region.

Mr. Awad was speaking on April 9th at an IPI Humanitarian Affairs Series event entitled “Building Resilience and Strengthening Capacity in Response to the Syrian Crisis.” During his remarks, Mr. Awad—who is now also the regional refugee coordinator for Syria and Iraq—relied on some of the latest figures from the region to make his case for a renewed international effort to assist millions of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by conflict.

“The world has failed Syria and the Syrian people,” he said. “The heroes today in this crisis are not the humanitarian workers…. It is very much the Syrian people who remain there, displaced. The country is torn.”

So far, the conflict has displaced 7.6 million Syrians inside the country, Mr. Awad said. The chaos created by the war has also affected neighboring Iraq, where the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is almost three million. Together, the two countries amount for 28 percent of the world’s total IDP population, Mr. Awad said.

In Iraq, the situation has been exacerbated by the Islamic State, whose barbaric acts have pushed thousands of people to flee into neighboring states. Thousands of Iraqis and Syrians are also trying to reach the shores of Europe every day, Mr. Awad said.

“This is not sustainable,” he said. “It’s going to lead to multiple sets of catastrophes and consequences. We have seen one in Iraq with the expansion of ISIS, but we may see others. And the countries in the region are very fragile, and they need support.”

Today, the spillover from the crisis is no longer limited to the Levant. Mr. Awad praised some European governments for opening their doors, but emphasized the need for the European Union to do more to guarantee the safety of those who attempt to reach Europe by boat. He said that by December 31, 2014, as many as 205,000 people had crossed the Mediterranean. Thousands, he added, perished on the way.

“We need Europe to open its borders… [and] really put this effort in rescue at sea rather than allowing people to die,” he said.

However, the countries that have felt the effects of the crisis the most are neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and even Egypt, Mr. Awad said. He noted that only 15 percent of refugees are actually being housed in camps, with the remaining 85 percent settling into local communities.

“This means they are sharing the meager resources that these countries, municipalities, villages, and towns have,” Mr. Awad said. “They are putting strains on the education system, on the health system, even on the solid waste collection system, electricity, water, employment, the job market… and pushing up the rent for locals.” The situation, Mr. Awad warned, is reaching its limit.

The problem, he added, is that as pressure on hosting communities increases, so does the risk of rising tensions between them and the refugees. Mr. Awad said that given the unlikelihood of any political solution, international actors need to commit more funding so that host countries can better cope with the rising demand.

In that regard, the UNHCR official mentioned the newly launched Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan. The 3RP, as it is also known, is a UN initiative that represents a “strategic shift” in the response to the Syrian crisis. According to its website, 3RP “is a country-driven, regionally coherent plan to address refugee protection and humanitarian needs whilst building the resilience of vulnerable people and impacted communities.”

3RP works side by side with the humanitarian response plan, Mr. Awad said, and pays particular attention to boosting the national resilience and delivery capabilities of host states. But to be truly effective, Mr. Awad continued, the project needs funding.

Today, he said, there is an imbalance with the way voluntary funding is allocated to humanitarian versus development operations. The total humanitarian allocation amounts to 22 billion USD, he said, against the 120 billion USD devoted to the development sector.

“The humanitarian issues are definitely outpacing the development side of things,” he said, which means that there ought to be a reconfiguration of the way this funding is being distributed.

Mr. Awad praised the recent donor conference hosted by the Kuwaiti government which managed to secure 3.8 billion USD worth of funding. However, he added, this amounted to less than 50 percent of the total appeal of 8.4 billion USD.

IPI Senior Adviser for External Relations Warren Hoge moderated the discussion.

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