Syria and German Foreign Office

Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Chllr #Merkel: GER pledges €2.3bn until 2018 for internat org helping victims in #Syria &the region. #Support Syrians https://t.co/yc6mFdZaYq— German Foreign Office February 4, 2016 The UN and the charities are hopeful that funding goals will be reached and pledges actually delivered upon after several years in a row of funding shortfalls, as an unending wave of refugees fleeing more than five years of conflict in Syria literally wash up on Europe shores. "We hope and expect to raise significant new funding," said Jens Laerke, spokesman of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which assembled the UN-led appeal, according to Deutsche Welle. The United Kingdom pledged $1.75 billion in new aid by 2020, while the United States pledged $900 million , bringing its total contribution to $5.1 billion in five years. The pledge was made at the opening of an international donors conference in London, where a UN-coordinated appeal by dozens of agencies is calling for $7.7 billion to respond to the humanitarian disaster in Syria, while regional governments are asking for $1.2 billion. Europe caught off guard Donor countries in Europe were caught off guard by the influx of refugees and are struggling to keep them in the region. German Development Minister Gerd Müller told DW in an interview the London conference must send a strong signal from the international community that the refugee crisis needs to be solved locally. Motives to increase funding are both humanitarian and out of self-interest, but there is now a sense of urgency to keep refugees close to their homes. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.