In Atmeh's Olive Tree Camp, near the Reyhanli border crossing in Turkey's Hatay Province, many of the residents left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Good basic personal hygiene and hand washing are critical to help prevent the spread of illness and disease, and providing basic hygiene supplies and education was identified as a priority… more »
President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 2013. In his remarks, President Obama addressed a number of foreign policy issues.
President Obama said, "Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al Qaeda.
"Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. This spring, our forces will move into… more »
It was near midnight. We were driving in the desert with no headlights, and Syria was 20 feet to my left. To the right was a mass of shapes -- it took me a minute to realize I was looking at 850 Syrians who had just crossed safely into Jordan. One man was carrying designer luggage normally seen in airplane cabins; one girl had no shoes. I walked amongst these scared, war-numbed people, and it hit me that this was only a tiny portion of those leaving Syria.
Roughly 763,000 people have fled Syria -- 240,000 to Jordan -- and an estimated 2.5 million are displaced internally. Before that night, those numbers seemed horrific, but had little real meaning to me. They are round statistics, indicators of an escalating war. But after hearing a woman recall her husband's death and a family describe their village being leveled by barrels of explosives, I better understood the scale… more »
On January 27 and 28, 2013, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg visited Syrian refugees in Jordan. They visited the Zaatari refugee camp, a refugee processing center at a Syria-Jordan border crossing, and a food voucher distribution center.
The United States is committed to helping the innocent children, women, and… more »
President Barack Obama approved an additional $155 million of humanitarian aid and announced it himself in order to underscore to the Syrian people and the international community the U.S. commitment to assisting Syrians and other refugees in need of immediate, lifesaving assistance as a… more »
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg visited a refugee camp for Syrians in Turkey. While there, they met with Turkish partners and assistance providers to discuss the needs of Syrian refugees and ongoing humanitarian assistance efforts.
The U.S. delegation commended the generosity of the Government of Turkey and the Turkish… more »
Today, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford; Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard; and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, Nancy Lindborg traveled to Ankara, Turkey to address the humanitarian situation in and around Syria. Ambassador Ford said:
"...We've had a busy couple of days. Yesterday, we were at the Syrian refugee camp of Islahiye down on the Turkish-Syrian border. We met a lot of people and heard stories of their suffering, of losing family members, houses destroyed. We talked about what we are doing, providing tents, providing food both to people in camps like the one we saw, but also inside… more »
Our "Photo of the Week" comes to us from Laurens Vermeire, a public affairs colleague accompanying a State Department and USAID delegation to Turkey and Jordan. The delegation includes U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford; Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard; and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg.
The photograph shows the delegation's visit to the Islahiye Refugee Camp for Syrians near the Syrian-Turkish border in Turkey on January 24, 2013. During the visit, the delegation members spent several hours talking with camp residents… more »
I am pleased to announce that I'll be visiting the region this week with colleagues from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. We'll visit Turkey and Jordan to see the conditions of Syrian refugees.
At the same time, we'll sit with governments, international organizations and NGOs working to help the Syrian refugees.
I also hope to have the opportunity to meet with many Syrians and hear directly from them about their circumstances.
Last week, when I was in Jordan, I was watching television and I saw a report on Al Arabiya about a Syrian father and his daughter, a young child, who died from the bitter cold -- a very tragic story that affected me deeply. I shared this story when I returned to Washington, and I think… more »
2012 was a challenging year for humanitarians trying to help displaced people around the world. The following summarizes some of the challenges addressed by the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) last year.
Inside Syria, 40,000 people have been killed and over two million are displaced. Over half a million people have fled to neighboring countries. The U.S. government (the State Department and USAID) is providing $210 million in humanitarian aid to the region, and this aid is reaching millions.
Last year, refugees fled violence and drought in Northern Mali and… more »
Position that women accept for themselves in a society is iunfluenced by culture and values as they have evolved. Violence against women is an acute problem…
more »
Spokesperson Nuland (Feb. 23): "These attacks ... are only the latest demonstrations of the Syrian regime's ruthlessness and its lack of compassion for the Syrian people it claims to represent." more »
Secretary Kerry (Feb. 22): "We meet as very special friends in a very strong alliance, an alliance that I can say to you is really evolving into a global partnership and which is critical to the peace and security of the Asia Pacific." President's Re more »
![Displaced Syrian women are seen in front of their tent in the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Feb. 21, 2013. [AP Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0222_syria_displaced_m.jpg)
![President Barack Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 12, 2013. [AP Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0213_obama_sotu_2_m.jpg)
![A Syrian refugee stands on top of a water tank at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, January 9, 2013. [AP File Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0210_syria_refugees_m.jpg)
![USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg interacts with Syrian refugees at Islahiye Refugee Camp in Turkey on January 24, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0125_lindborg_turkey_syria_m.jpg)
![Syrian refugees look out of a vehicle's window just after crossing the border from Syria to Turkey, in Cilvegozu, Turkey, December 20, 2012. [AP Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0122_syria_refugees_in_turkey_m.jpg)
![Afghan refugee children stand on their belonging loaded on a truck as they depart for Afghanistan at a UNHCR repatriation terminal near Quetta, Pakistan, Nov. 17, 2012. [AP File Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224121235im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0102_afghan_refugees_m.jpg)
