SALHIYEH, Jordan — A Syrian refugee couple and their baby boy were recently dropped from a U.N. food voucher program and live on $9-a-day jobs on a peach farm in northern Jordan. In a town nearby, a 16-year-old boy quit school to work as a mechanic’s helper because his refugee family needs the extra $21 a week.
With the Syria conflict in its fifth year, the struggle for survival is getting tougher for many of the close to 4 million Syrians who fled to neighboring countries, particularly those in Jordan and Lebanon, where the highest number of refugees have settled.
There appears to be no quick and practical way to halt the downward slide.
International plans for easing the humanitarian crisis are severely underfunded because of rising need and competing demands from other hotspots. At a Syria conference in March, donors committed to paying less than half of the $8.4 billion requested by aid agencies and governments for 2015. Of that sum, $4.5 billion is earmarked for helping refugees and the countries that host them, but so far only one-fifth of the money has been received.
The funding gaps have already forced a 30 percent cut in U.N. food aid this year and put thousands more families on waiting lists for cash assistance. The reductions are pushing more refugees, including children, into low-wage informal jobs and into competition with unskilled local workers, particularly in Jordan and Lebanon, where unemployment rates have soared.