UNHCR Emergency Post Earthquake Response for Syria

11-months after the earthquakes, UNHCR continues its transition to a longer-term response to address the needs of affected populations and to help them rebuild their lives and livelihoods. This support includes protection intervention, psychosocial support, child protection, shelter, legal assistance, and multipurpose cash assistance.

In Syria:
As the Syria crisis enters its 13th year, the scale, severity, and complexity of needs across the country remain overwhelming. Almost 15 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and an estimated 8.8 million people have been affected by the 6 February earthquakes.
A key priority is to address immediate shelter needs for refugees currently in informal settlements.
UNHCR and partners rehabilitated 11 collective shelters in Aleppo and Latakia, providing shelter to 695 individuals (3,366 families). In northwest Syria, UNHCR distributed 10,000 tents, eight large Rubb hall tents and 1,000 Refugee Housing Units (RHUs), supporting some 53,000 affected people.

Needs inside Syria remain immense. UNHCR continues to support forcibly displaced people to meet their immediate and early recovery needs in an already complex humanitarian setting. There are needs to maintain continuity to humanitarian assistance to northwest Syria. There is also a pressing need to identify and mitigate existing risks of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse.

The earthquake is another tragedy on top of the crisis that has affected Syria and the region for the last 12 years.