Appeal Target: US$1,621,582
Balance Requested: US$1,546,032
Geneva, 9 September 2015
Dear Colleagues,
As of 24 August, refugee and migrant arrivals to Europe in 2015 hit 267,000 after death-defying journeys across sea and land. Less wealthy nations and developing countries take the biggest share of the millions of refugees worldwide, including 4 million Syrian people who found refuge in their region. UNHCR highlighted that major humanitarian operations supporting refugees, such as those for Syrian refugees hosted in the Middle East are grossly underfunded.
The majority of those taking the route to Europe are refugees coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea,
Iraq and Somalia and their numbers continue to rise rapidly. Most people arriving are fleeing war, conflict or persecution at home, as well as deteriorating conditions in many refugee-hosting countries and countries of transit which do not offer safety or the possibility to establish a new existence. The lack of a safe and legal path to Europe forces these people to take risks and forces many to rely on smugglers. This puts them in danger of falling prey to traffickers and other criminals and of losing their life. UNHCR estimates that in 2014 more than 3,000 women, children and men lost their lives in the Mediterranean alone.
ACT Alliance through its members in Greece, Hungary and Serbia have started already to provide humanitarian assistance in this complex situation before this Appeal has been issued. With this appeal ACT members will now continue and expand their response. A coordination structure under the ACT Europe Emergency Response Group will be established, and a meeting will be held in Belgrade/Serbia on 16 and 17 September in order to ensure that all ACT-members work collaboratively within this ACT response.