The Syrian crisis comes to Europe

World Vision is providing urgent aid along the Serbian border with Hungary as hundreds of thousands of refugees surge into Europe, in a migration unprecedented since the Second World War.

In the past week, we have reached people with urgently-needed items. We are focusing on exhausted mothers and children, pausing for a few days on their epic trek to escape violence, persecution and fear in Syria and other countries.

Related: World Vision expands Syria Crisis response.

These children and families need peace, and that requires continued public outrage at a global political system which has, so far, utterly failed to deliver it. 

These desperate families have set their hopes on Europe and the peace they long for. World Vision is planning “child-friendly spaces” to provide a measure of that peace for the children. We are preparing to meet the needs of families who have nothing as colder weather starts to set in.

We have been working with others to help innocent civilians whose lives have been fractured by the Syrian crisis since 2011. We have reached more than two million people affected by the conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Right now we are reaching more than half a million people every month with cash for food, clean water, proper sanitation facilities, remedial education and child protection.

Sitting with a Syrian family in Azraq, Jordan, as the son shows me how he gives himself a blood test (he is diabetic). Photo by Nigel Marsh  

In the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, I sat with a man who used to own a restaurant in Homs, Syria.  He gathered his wife and five children close to him and spoke of how he had lost everything, but still longed to take his sons and daughters home, in peace.

I met a teenager in Lebanon, living in a semi-derelict factory building, angrily lamenting the loss of his education and asking why he shouldn’t trade his vision of life as a doctor for one as a rebel.

This is a children’s crisis. More than half of the four million refugees are under 18.

This is a children’s crisis. More than half of the four million refugees are under 18. A growing number are fleeing Syria without their families. Many are afraid to reach out for support, for fear of being stopped by authorities along the way.

The public has shown politicians that they understand, at a gut level, that this is more than politics, more than borders. Each of us knows that our own humanity is eroded if we do not prevent children’s suffering when we can.

Governments have made big promises, but less than half the money needed has actually been provided for refugees in and outside Syria and those affected by the conflict in Iraq.

As a result, food aid in Lebanon has been halved. Support for most refugees in Jordan may be cut altogether. Hungry children are being pulled out of school to work, and girls are pressured to marry early. No wonder families feel abandoned and make the perilous journey to Europe.

We are heartened by the massive response of the last few weeks, and World Vision will continue to play its part in the response.

Of course, getting better at hosting refugees is not the ultimate solution. These children and families need peace, and that requires continued public outrage at a global political system which has, so far, utterly failed to deliver it.