IRELAND HAS OFFICIALLY pledged to take in 310 men, women and children fleeing the conflict in Syria since it began in 2011, according to figures published today by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The government promised 90 places for resettlement for this year, 100 for next year, and 120 places have been set aside for the year 2016.
However, today’s report found that Irish authorities had received fewer than 200 asylum applications from Syrian nationals since the beginning of the conflict.
The Syrian Humanitarian Admission Programme (SHAP) is a significant component of the government’s policy towards Syrian refugees, allowing “vulnerable persons” to join their families in Ireland for two years.
Internationally, Germany is the country which has pledged the most “humanitarian admissions” to Syrian nationals – 20,000 in all, in the three years of the conflict.
The tiny European principality of Liechtenstein has formally offered four places, the fewest of any country.
Around 4,000 Syrians have arrived in the United Kingdom since 2011, but in an unofficial capacity.
The UNHCR report did not include figures for a recently-launched plan known as the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme, but did praise the UK for allowing Syrians already present in the country to extend their stays there.
The United States, for its part, has offered what the report calls “an open-ended number” of places.
The number of Syrian refugees who have already fled to neighbouring countries has reached 2.8 million, in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
By comparison, only 123,600 applied for asylum in Europe.
Perhaps the most sobering figure in today’s report, however, is that the number of Syrians displaced within their own country, forced out of their homes, has now reached a staggering 6.5 million in just three years.
Check out the report in full below, or if you’re reading on a mobile app, CLICK HERE to download and view it.
http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/07/53b69f574.pdf
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