UNICEF support for Syrian refugees in Jordan stalling

United Nations Children’s agency (UNICEF) says it may be forced to stop provision of humanitarian assistance to over 100,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan due to lack funding.UNICEF says by June this year it will not be able to provide safe water, sanitation, immunization, education and protection to Syrian refugees in the Za’atari camp in Jordan.Donors have so far contributed 12 million dollars to UNICEF against an appeal of 57 million dollars for its operation in Jordan this year.Marixie Mercado from UNICEF says the needs for refugees are growing rapidly surpassing available funding resources.“The needs are rising exponentially and we are broke. In concrete terms this means that by June we will stop delivering 3.5 million liters of water every day to Za’atari camp. This means we won’t be able to open the third school we are building at Za’atari because we simply do not have the funds to cover the teachers’ salaries, the textbooks, the furniture and the running costs of the school. This means the ministry of education will turn away Syrian refugee students seeking entry into Jordanian schools because we cannot provide support to any more than 30,000 Syrian school children already in Jordanian schools with UNICEF support. ”UNICEF estimates that the number of Syrian refugees in Jordan will reach 1.2 million by the end of the year.