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HOLLYWOOD STAR AND UN special envoy Angelina Jolie has urged the world to help Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country as she visited a refugee camp in Jordan.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh accompanied Jolie and called for international support to help the tiny kingdom cope with the influx of refugees from its northern neighbour.
“We encourage the international community to do everything they can to support these refugees, and there is much to be done,” Jolie told a joint news conference at Zaatari refugee camp, 85 kilometres north of Amman in a desert area near the border with Syria.
“It has been a very heavy experience,” she said of her tour of the camp. “It is very emotional to be with people who are wondering who is on their side.”
Guterres appealed to the international community to “help us and to help the Jordanian government… in order to be able to massively invest in improving the living conditions of refugees in this camp… please help us.”
“Since the beginning of the crisis over 200,000 Syrians have crossed the borders into Jordan without going back into Syria,” he said.
“I think the world should understand how difficult it is for Jordan to cope with this challenge,” he told the news conference, attended by Judeh.
Guterres also highlighted the miserable living conditions in Zaatari. “This camp, like all other camps in the world, is a very difficult place to live in,” he said.
In Geneva, meanwhile, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said the number of refugees who have fled Syria for neighbouring countries since the start of the conflict nearly 18 months ago has reached more than 250,000.
“Latest figures show that more than a quarter of a million Syrian refugees (253,106 people) have now been registered in the surrounding region, or are awaiting registration,” Edwards said. He added:
The complexity of the crisis is one of the aspects which sets it apart and the speed with which people have fled Syria.
The fact that 100,000 people had fled the country into neighbouring countries in the space of a month made it “an extraordinary acceleration of this crisis.
UN figures show that 85,197 refugees are registered in Jordan, with a further 35,961 awaiting processing. Jordanian officials say almost 30,000 refugees live in Zaatari, where unrest erupted last month over living conditions.
Jordan has said it needs $700 million in international aid to cope with the influx of refugees.
Guterres noted on Tuesday how Jordan over the years has taken in refugees from Palestine and Iraq in “successive waves of 2.7 million refugees.”
The UN says more than 1.2 million Syrians, over half of them children, have become internally displaced in the country while an estimated 250,000 refugees sought shelter in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
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A new building firm called McAteer & Fitzpatrick construction will get the contract.
I get it, I see what you did there!
“finish what Anglo started” sounds like something out of Goodfellas
Everyone should google, Who appointed Patrick Neary Financial Regulator and read this guy’s history? How he got the job, is obvious that he was picked to sleep on the job and be in a coma!
One of NAMA’s finest will be in for the job no doubt?
Will look pretty cool when it’s finished
As long as the offices look good, who care how madly managed the institution is?
I’m saying it will look good, does everything have to have a begruding context to it?
@polar bear!!
I’m afraid it usually does !!
And the staff will look for disturbance money for moving a mile down the road. 10 grand each should cover it.
I hear that Patrick Neary says that if he had these lovely shiny, bright and prestigious offices he could have easily regulated the Banks.
Now we have the CBI focused on prestigious offices in a landmark location while the Banks succumb to the mortal wounds they self inflicted.
It’s a pity that we Irish focus on the baubles, the shiny stuff and fail to recognise that it is not the buildings and offices that count but the integrity and independence of the personnel working there.
Of course I begrudge the CBI the folly of these premises. I would prefer the money to be spent on health services at point of supply, on building social housing and for truly worthy purposes. Think what Peter McVerry could do with this money. Our priorities are wrong and aesthetic quality is a luxury we can’t afford.
The main responsibilities of this incompetent institution now reside in Frankfurt. Can we not simply disband this useless quango?
Eric, good point. These are going to be very expensive offices for mere puppets.
I see no sign that the CBI has acquired any competence or capability.
After the Banks have failed, this body may have little to do.
In 2004, the regulation of the supply of credit in the public interest, the previous statutory responsibility of the CBI, was abolished.
A country with sh1tty hospitals and gleaming central banks, you can see where things are going.
Best comment in a long time.
The symbolism of a failed and grossly unfit for purpose Central Bank of Ireland inhabiting the intended HQ of a recklessly and grossly mismanaged Bank is pretty plain.
No one can accuse the CBI of lacking a sense of irony although it may just be a lack of sound sense.
What are the plans,if any, for the Central Bank’s current monstrosity on Dame Street?
A Viking museum?
Laughing!
Starbucks
Padraig – in answer to your question of what they should do?
They should be made rebuild what was there before the monstrosity , where the green bus is in this pic is what torn down to build it.
http://www.photography.paul-walsh.net/landscape/Cushman/images/11a.jpg
Apartments for leprechains
The new headquarters for the Leprechaun museum.
A massive Burger King.
Occupy Dame Street offices
Wetherspoons
Apparently Facebook were looking at it Padraig. Not sure if they went any further than looking at it though.
I hear it’s becoming the worlds first ten story Starbucks…
Apple were interested in it too. They’re looking for a large building in central Dublin.
Library wasn’t it?
The central bank on Dame street is actually a fine example of brutalist architecture in Dublin and is a very well engineered structure! May not be popular now, but tearing down buildings such as these will do long term damage to Dublins architectural diversity!
A nice monument to our unelected masters.
Hope new Central Bank Building has an Interpretive Centre in its basement, for visitors on the Dublin Tourist circuit to learn of the follies of our past overlords.
A replica of our past Banking Regulator’s desk and easy-chair to sit centre stage.
Maybe Sean Quinn could put in a submission?
Failing that, perhaps Tom McFeeley could help them out.
A monument to ego and hubris is a fitting place for the CBI.
Finish what Anglo started? You mean the complete and utter devastation of the countries banking system and public finances…
Some bust developer will get a nice number there,boi
Surely it won’t be a central bank and more? Slightly east of centre perhaps centre right in location and ideology??
Does the new Emperor have any clothes?
Keep it as it is, its an honest reflection of this country. But then again fancy offices for central bank would help emphasise where current priorities lie
We should have a statue of Patrick Neary erected on Dame Street, made out of wood. In every sense, a perfect likeness.
I think the Dame St site would be a perfect location for the Dublin City Library. I know there are plans to put it on Parnell Square.
Oooh glass + anger
Well both entities were always close. So it’s nice to see the central bank fitting snugly into the vacant space…… ;)
It should be left as is with the story of the bust carved into the concrete as a warning to future generations. Along with a big display showing the realtime 60 odd billion being paid off.
A total f*ck up of the economy?
Anyone know what will happen then to the existing Central Bank building?
Tom mc feeley has the contract
And Mr.Nearys “gofor” coming back in to help run the show. Great little country alright.
I hope that’s not your phone number you just put out there on a public website…
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