UN Allocates $8 Million to Support New Arrivals at Syrian Border Points

The UN Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, has allocated $8 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to support the response to the newly arrived people at Syrian border points.

Since the start of the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have distributed relief items to more than 250,000 people at the Syrian crossing points, including hygiene kits, blankets, winter clothes, food and water, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a daily briefing on Thursday.

UNHCR has also established a dedicated help desk at the border crossing point for UNHCR and Syrian Arab Red Crescent lawyers to organise legal counselling and assistance for new arrivals, he said.

Haq said the funds from the Central Emergency Response Fund will help to scale up the emergency response, including shelter, food, protection and cash assistance both at the border crossings and in destination areas in Syria, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the road through the main border crossing between Syria and Lebanon remains inoperable for vehicles following an airstrike on October 4. "This has significantly affected the movement of civilians fleeing hostilities in Lebanon, with people now faced with crossing on foot around large craters left by the attack or resorting to longer journeys through other routes."

OCHA said this has also disrupted a vital route to transport commodities between the two countries and has caused delays in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the area.

The office reported that a missile strike in the densely populated Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus on Wednesday hit a residential and commercial building, about half a kilometre away from a UN office, claiming seven lives and leaving several others injured.

"All parties should respect their obligations under international law -- including international humanitarian law, as applicable -- and all concerned should avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure," OCHA said.