NEW YORK — Iraqi refugees in Syria will begin receiving cash relief via ATM from two United Nations agencies, the organization has announced.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program will start providing $100-$200 per month to 7,000 refugee families by issuing them ATM cards.
"The families have been interviewed by community services staff and identified as being in urgent need of financial assistance," media reports have quoted UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis from Geneva, Switzerland. "They include women at risk, families with working children and refugees with chronic illnesses."
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It is unclear, however, how well the new system will work as many of the country's relatively few ATMs are concentrated in the business districts of major cities.
The U.N. agencies said that Iraqi refugees in Syria — host to more than 1.4 million Iraqi refugees — are running out of finances. Some 33% of those surveyed said their financial resources would last for three months or less, while 24% are relying on remittances from relatives living abroad.
Similar studies conducted in Lebanon and Jordan revealed that Iraqi refugees living there shared some of the same difficulties. For example, the majority of the 450,000-500,000 Iraqis living in Jordan are surviving on savings or receives financial transfers.
"This makes a large segment of Iraqis in Jordan at risk of becoming vulnerable with the depletion of their savings," Pagonis noted.
The surveys also showed a high prevalence of chronic diseases among Iraqi refugees living in these countries, as well as significant drop out rates for children and difficulties related to refugee protection.
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