Amos to visit Turkey this week to draw attention to plight of Syrian refugees

UN Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos is scheduled to visit Turkey tomorrow Wednesday to draw attention to the plight of the Syrian refugees who fled to neighbouring countries and who are in urgent need of critical aid, it was announced on Tuesday. During her two-day visit, Amos is expected to visit a refugee camp in Kilis on with Governor Suleyman Tapsiz to meet refugee families living there, as well as the Turkish and internal agencies helping them. Amos is also scheduled to meet senior Government officials in Ankara including Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and key partners on humanitarian issues. Valerie Amos is also expected to sign a Plan of Action outlining areas of further cooperation between her office - the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - and Turkey's disaster and Emergency directorate (AFAD). "After two years of conflict, the violent situation in Syria shows no sign of abating and millions of parents and their children need help and protection, " her office said in a statement. More than one million Syrians are now living as refugees, and the Turkish authorities estimate that they are hosting some 400,000 of them. Amos expressed regret last week that the USD 1.5 billion pledged in the donor Conference in Kuwait last January 30 has not been fully honored, and that only USD 200 million of those pledges have been turned into cash. In a related matter, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released today that a generation of Syrian children may be "scarred for life" due to the unrelenting violence, displacement and damage to essential services. "As millions of children inside Syria and across the region witness their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict, the risk of them becoming a lost generation grows every day," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said. Syria has been wracked by violence since the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad began two years ago. Over 70,000 people have died, more than one million have fled to neighbouring countries, and two million have been internally displaced. UNICEF estimates that two million children have been affected across the region. UNICEF stressed in the report that children are suffering the trauma of seeing family members and friends killed, while being terrified by the sounds and scenes of conflict.