The G7 group of industrial powers and Gulf states have allocated 1.6 billion euros in much-needed cash for UN aid agencies helping Syrian refugees.
The announcement, made in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, followed an initiative of Germany – a country that could take in up to a million people fleeing conflict in 2015.
“Germany alone is going to shoulder 100 million euros and with this money not only will we support the aid and humanitarian organisations, but we will also support the host nations and the receiving nations which have lent support to so many people,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters.
“And in the light of the Syria crisis, this means Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.”
For years, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have hosted millions of refugees from Syria’s civil war.
But with conditions increasingly difficult, huge numbers of people are now abandoning camps there to seek a new life in Europe which is struggling to cope wit