AMMAN // Um Ibrahim, a Syrian widow with eight children living as refugees in Jordan, burst into tears after she received a text message from the World Food Programme saying they were no longer eligible to receive aid.
The prospect of losing the US$270 monthly payment they have been dependent on since fleeing their home in Syria 18 months ago was too much for the 43-year-old to take.
She was not alone – a total of 12,000 Syrian families in Jordan have been told this month that their food aid is being halted, as the UN's food agency grapples with the overwhelming demands of a war and a weary international donor community increasingly unwilling to pay the bills.
"I'm a widow and I can't support my children, I don't know what to do, other families have men to take care of them, I don't. I cried for days but I know God closes one door and opens others," Um Ibrahim said last week.
More than 6 million people, most of them still inside Syria, although more than 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries, are getting UN aid.
Despite the overwhelming numbers – the Syria crisis is the worst they have faced in decades, according to aid officials – a simmering funding crisis has put parts of that assistance programme in jeopardy.
Widows, considered to be among the most vulnerable refugees, are not among those on the WFP's cutback list, which means Um Ibrahim received her text by mistake. Steps are now underway to get her back on the aid roll, WFP officials said.
But others are not going to get such a reprieve.
As funding has become more limited, the WFP has made cuts. In Jordan, this meant withdrawing aid from 12,000 families among 540,000 refugees who benefited from the monthly food assistance. The total number of UN registered refugees is 620,000.
Recipients of aid inside Syria had the quantities of food in their WFP parcels reduced by 40 per cent this month because of a funding gap.
Deeper cuts have been proposed. Last month, the WFP warned it would cut down assistance to 440,000 Syrian refugees living outside Jordan's refugee camps by reducing the value of food coupons from $34 to $16 a month per person. Similar cuts were planned in Lebanon and Turkey, the other major hosts of Syrians escaping a conflict that has killed more than 190,000 people.
Those cuts were postponed after a last minute injection of funding but, once again, the WFP is saying they will have to be made from next month.
"Fortunately, we were able to gather enough money to keep providing a full level of assistance to refugees in the neighbouring countries this month [October]. However, in November we are short of the funding we need. Therefore, we may have to reduce the value of vouchers if more resources do not arrive immediately," said Joelle Eid, a WFP spokeswoman.
In response to the Syria crisis, the UN has sought billions of dollars in aid, much of which has been promised by regional and world governments. Those pledges are not always met however and, with growing military spending on airstrikes against ISIL, together with other costly international crises such as the Ebola outbreak, funding is uncertain.
"The Syria and regional response is a 'hand-to-mouth' operation and money is so tight that planning is happening on a week-to-week basis at this stage. If we don't receive new contributions, the cuts will eventually come in November and December," Ms Eid said.
Officially borders remain open to refugees but Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have all been reducing access to prevent ever larger numbers of refugees entering.
Lebanon "no longer officially receives any displaced Syrians", Rashid Derbas, the social affairs minister, said on Saturday.
Refugees describe steadily worsening circumstances, as they exhaust savings and struggle to find work. Those who can get jobs are employed illegally, usually at low wages, which undercut the local workforce, fuelling resentment of refugee communities.
In Lebanon, anecdotal reports from Syrians say harassment is on the rise, including physical assaults on refugees, which may be politically motivated, or a result of local frustrations at economic hardships created by the vast influx of people.
"Syrians stay at home when they can, they are keeping a low profile, there have been some attacks and they are often detained and questioned by Lebanese security forces. There are lots of incidents. It is not just that food aid is being cut, life is getting harder and harder for refugees," said an aid official based in Beirut.
One of the problems Syrian refugees say they face is that the WFP aid only allows them to purchase certain staple foods, but not items such as soap, sanitary pads or chlorine for cleaning toilets. In order to buy those, many refugees sell parts of their food allocations at a loss.
"Some refugees do sell part of their aid, on some occasions, and that is taken as a sign by some donors that people have enough to eat. It's not the case, they just have to decide between eating and cleaning their bathroom, so sometimes people will opt to go hungry," the Beirut aid official said.
Conditions have convinced some Syrians to return home, according to aid staff and moderate rebel fighters who are able to cross the borders.
Most refugees are able to cope for the first year with aid, but then financial pressure becomes too great, said
Jonathan Campbell, Emergency coordinator for WFP in Jordan.
"Most come with a small amount of money and some jewelry, but after a year they start to become more and more vulnerable because they exhaust all their resources."
He said that between 30 and 40 per cent of the refugees he talked to said they would consider going back to Syria if the aid stopped.
"It's a catastrophe, winter is coming and I don't know how people will get by," said a Syrian rebel commander, fighting with a Western and Arab backed alliance.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
