JORDANIAN leaders have appealed for UK cash help to ease its refugee crisis.
The Middle Eastern kingdom — a key UK ally in the region — has the second highest refugee population in the world, with more than 600,000 displaced Syrians living there. It's also been badly affected by Covid and is headed by King Abdullah II, whose mother was English.
Now the kingdom has sent an appeal to the UK about the imminent life-saving needs of over a quarter of a million refugees that will not be met by United Nations agencies from September.
In an official letter to Sarah Champion MP, who chairs the House of Commons International Development Committee, Jordanian ambassador Omar Al-Nahar says water, basic sanitation and food supplies are at imminent risk due to aid cuts as other countries reduce their aid spend due to Covid.
The UK is amongst those after the Tory government slashed overseas development funding to 0.5%.
That's despite a cross-party outcry, pleas from the aid sector and its own manifesto commitment to keep the spending at 0.7%.
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As many as 261,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan could be cut off from World Food Programme support by September without urgent funding. Unicef, which provides clean water and sanitation, faces cuts in that same month.
Al-Nahar says this could undermine both "public health and security" in the affected refugee camps.
And he asks that "the government of the United Kingdom renews its financial support of these agencies and calls upon the international community to unite in its efforts to avoid further financial deficits".
On international funding, Al-Nahar says: "Further donations are required as a matter of urgency. Without these additional resources and the full commitment of the international community, many more refugees will be impacted."
Champion has now relayed that message to Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Secretary Dominic Raab and urged him to reveal what he'll to to help.
The letter emerged as Raab attended the G20 foreign ministers' summit in Italy, where he spoke with his Turkish counterpart. Afterwards, Raab said: "Unfettered humanitarian access into Syria is urgently needed."
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