“The vast majority, almost 180,000, are Syrians, including Syrian refugees who had fled Syria for safety in Lebanon in the past and were now forced to flee again,” he said.
More than 28,000 Lebanese have also crossed into Syria.
running away with nothing
“The majority are people fleeing intense Israeli bombing.” Ms Al-Madaien told reporters in Geneva. “They arrive exhausted, traumatized and with very, very few belongings.”
The UNHCR representative said the agency is preparing for up to 350,000 people to cross into Syria, depending on the course of the conflict.
As the humanitarian fallout continues to deepen more than a month since Israeli and US airstrikes against Iran began, sparking a broader regional war, supply lines across the Middle East are already severely disrupted.
World Food Program (WFP) supply director Corinne Fleischer said the agency is concerned about “all (its) large operations.”
The WFP currently has “70,000 metric tons of war-affected food… About half of it is on chartered bulk vessels and the other half is in containers that are en route or stuck in a port and not moving,” he said.
Speaking from Rome, Ms. Fleischer clarified that the WFP does not have ships in the Strait of Hormuz, but is affected “by the domino effect of what is happening there… ships stuck in ports, not docking in ports, not leaving ports, not unloading containers.”
COVID precedent
The WFP official warned that similar global supply chain disruptions seen during COVID took “four or five months to return to operation once the situation has stabilized”.
Shipping costs have risen as shippers avoid the war-linked Suez Canal in the Middle East and have to detour around the Cape of Good Hope. This adds 30 days to the trip and has raised fares by 15 to 25 percent, and fuel price increases have also affected companies’ bottom lines.
Speaking of mitigation measures, Ms Fleischer explained that WFP has been “requesting priority cargo for humanitarian operations” as it is the only UN organization with its own shipping department that interacts directly with shipping lines and shipowners.
He said the agency has successfully negotiated a waiver of surcharges being charged by shipping lines and certain at-risk ports in the Middle East, which represent between $2,000 and $4,000 per container, a savings of about $1.5 million so far.
Delays in aid to Afghanistan
The WFP is also diverting shipments, for example to Afghanistan, where 17 million people are food insecure.
Earlier this year, food aid from Pakistan was affected by the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan and was initially diverted through Iran, Fleischer said.
“While we were (changing route) to reach the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, war broke out,” he explained. “We had to put it in Jebel Ali (port) in Dubai and now we will transport it by truck from Dubai through Saudi Arabia… That adds up to around 1,000 euros per tonne and of course another three weeks.”
The WFP official expressed greater concern for Sudan, with 19 million “very hungry” people, as well as Somalia and South Sudan, where operations are failing due to longer delivery times and higher costs.
“For several years now, funding for humanitarian operations is not where it should be,” he said. “We have eroded all reserve reserves. We live hand-to-mouth in these operations.”
With famine in areas of Sudan “there is no time,” he insisted. “Our operations and pipelines do not allow for a detour of three more weeks through the Horn of Africa.”