UN High Commissioner for Refugees says rich countries waited too long to respond to Syrian crisis

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement Saturday that the developed world waited "far too long" to act in the Syrian refugee crisis. The countries of Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have been dealing with a massive influx of Syrian refugees for the last four and half years, but it is only when the refugees began moving into Europe that the world took notice, the UN council said. Antonia Guterres, UN refugee chief, said, "Unfortunately, only when the poor enter the halls of the rich do the rich notice that the poor exist." Guterres went on to say that if the affluent world had acknowledged the crisis sooner and sent necessary intervention and support to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, the current refugee crisis in Europe would not have happened.

Conditions for the refugees who ended up in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey are bleak; they are not allowed to work in their new countries, so the majority live below the poverty line. Because of this, Guterres warns that a continued lack of support in Syria's neighboring countries will lead to a mass exodus of refugees out of Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon and further into Europe, joining the multitude already heading there. According to Guterres, Syria's immediate neighbors will need billions in assistance to assure this doesn't happen.

Guterres further commented on the response of European countries to the crisis, refuting Hungary's claim that the refugees they were receiving were not true war refugees but migrants looking for economic opportunity. The majority of Syrians arriving in European countries, he said, are genuine refugees in need of aid.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, will be holding a "high-level meeting" this coming Wednesday to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis.

Samantha Johnson