Media Releases

“Before we feared dying of war, now we fear dying of hunger”: Ukraine crisis propelling hunger in Syria

March 15, 2022

Eleven years after the Syrian conflict began, six in ten Syrians do not know where their next meal is coming from, said Oxfam today. It warned that reliance on imports from Russia means the current crisis in Europe could ripple into Syria, exacerbating food shortages and causing food prices to soar. In the last year, food prices in Syria have doubled.

Oxfam spoke to 300 Syrians in government-held areas of the country. Nearly 90 percent said they could only afford to eat bread, rice and, occasionally, some vegetables. After ten years of conflict, the shockwaves of Covid-19, and the Lebanese banking crisis coupled with the Ukrainian crisis are having serious repercussions for the floundering economy, disrupting food and fuel imports and causing the Syrian pound to plummet at breakneck speed.

Moutaz Adham, Country Director for Oxfam in Syria, said: “People have been pushed to the brink by a collapsing economy. Around Damascus, people queue for hours to get subsidised bread at state bakeries, while young children rifle through garbage trying to find scraps of food. Struggling to put food on the table means many families are turning to extreme ways to cope: going into debt to buy food, taking children out of school to work and reducing the number of meals each day. Marrying off young daughters has become another negative coping strategy as it is one less mouth to feed. This is against a backdrop of 90 percent of Syrians living in poverty, unemployment rate at 60 percent and a monthly minimum wage in the public sector of approximately 26 US dollars.”

He added: “Syria relies heavily on Russia for imports of wheat. The crisis in Ukraine has seen the Syrian government starting to ration food reserves, including wheat, sugar, oil, and rice amid fears of shortages and price surges, and this could be just the beginning.”

Hala from Deir-ez-Zor told Oxfam: “It makes no sense for us to think about tomorrow, if we cannot even figure out what to put on our table today to feed our children.”

Majed from Rural Damascus told Oxfam: “I work 13 hours a day to feed my children, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Sometimes I wish there is more than 24 hours a day, so I can do more work. I’m exhausted and don’t know how I will survive this harsh life with my family.”

Moutaz Adham added: “An average income only covers half of basic expenses.”

Notes:

Oxfam has been working in Syria since 2013 to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict. In the last year, Oxfam’s work reached 1.2 million people. We provide clean drinking water to people, emergency cash assistance, and soap, hygiene and other materials. We help farmers get back to farming, and bakers back to baking. We run Covid-19 awareness raising campaigns. Oxfam is calling on international donors to focus on funding early recovery and social protection while also keep focusing on emergency needs and responses, including hunger response activities to save lives now.

12.4 million people in Syria are food insecure, child labour occurs in 84% of communities and child marriage for adolescent girls in 71% of communities, according to the latest figures from the Humanitarian Needs Overview.

The price of the World Food Program (WFP) standard food basket (a group of essential food items) has increased by 97% in the past year.

Last year, the Syrian government reportedly had to import 1.5 million tons of wheat, mainly from Russia.

As part of its Emergency and Food Security response, Oxfam interviewed 300 beneficiaries in government held areas of Aleppo, Deir-ez-Zor and Rural Damascus governorates, 100 beneficiaries in each governorate and found that 88 percent eat only bread, rice and occasionally vegetables. Additionally, 60 percent of people Oxfam spoke to say they earn less than what they need to cover their food needs. 10 percent said they rely only on bread and tea to survive. Since subsidised bread provides approximately 840 kcal per day, this amounts to only 40 percent of calories needed to survive (an average family of 5 can buy 12 bundles of subsidised bread, each consisting of 7 loaves, this leaves 2.4 loaves per person per day, having no more than 350 kcal). Strikingly, only 1.5 percent said they can afford to buy meat and only on rare occasions.

Contact details:

David Bull | Oxfam Aotearoa | David.bull@oxfam.org.nz | mobile +64 274179724

Burkina Faso: Second biggest spike in displacement since crisis began

March 11, 2022

The military coup in Burkina Faso late January made headlines. The registration that same month of over 160,000 newly displaced Burkinabé, a near-record high figure, did not. The jump marks the second biggest monthly increase since the humanitarian crisis started in the country over three years ago, say the Norwegian Refugee Council, Action Against Hunger, Médecins du Monde France and Oxfam.

“Flashing around big figures at high-level meetings doesn’t mean anything to people who lack decent shelter, clean water, and can’t feed their children three meals a day. We call on donor countries to make good on the promises made at the Central Sahel Conference in October 2020,” says Hassane Hamadou, Country Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Burkina Faso. “The crisis in this region should not be addressed only when strategically convenient, or when a Sahel country is in the media limelight. The international community has a duty to alleviate human suffering, whether they hit close to home or not.”

Since January 2019, the displaced population in Burkina Faso has grown by 2,000%, with over 1.7 million people now uprooted. More than two out of three are children. While a growing portion of this generation gets raised away from home and with little access to schools, education funding remains harrowingly low. Overall funding for the humanitarian response is less than half of what is needed. It is vital the crisis in Ukraine does not divert funds and attention away from the Sahel region this year, warn the signatories.

“Some donors have already indicated that they would proceed to a 70% cut of our funding to support operations in Ukraine. We are very concerned that this will become a trend, making access to healthcare and other basic services even scarcer for displaced people in Burkina Faso,” says Safia Torche, General Director for Médecins du Monde in Burkina Faso.

“The crisis in Ukraine is also likely to impact soaring grain prices, making an already bad situation worse,” says Grégoire Brou, Country Director for Action Against Hunger in Burkina Faso. “An estimated 3 million people are facing food insecurity in Burkina Faso and this number is likely to increase significantly this year during the lean season. Now is the time for the mobilization of all, not disengagement.”

As part of this step-up in effort, the newly-formed government must urgently respond to the humanitarian emergency in the country, not just the military and security dimensions of the crisis. We hope the appointment of the former Secretary General of the Burkinabé Red Cross as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs will mark a renewed and robust cooperation with all humanitarian partners.

Notes

As of January 31, 2022, 1,741,655 IDPs were registered in Burkina Faso according to 1,579,976 IDPs were registered as of December 31, 2021 (Source: CONASUR)
In January 2019, the country counted a total of 87,000 displaced people (Source: OCHA)
September 2019 was the only month that recorded a bigger increase in new displacements (+197,366), with a total of 288,994 IDPs registered as of September 6, 2019 (Source: UNHCR) and 486,360 registered by October 4, 2019 (Source: WFP/CONASUR)
44% of the Humanitarian Response Plan was funded in 2021. Only 6.5% of the education needs were covered (Source: OCHA, FTS)
More than US$1.7 billion was pledged by donor countries to scale up lifesaving humanitarian aid in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger at the Ministerial Round Table for Central Sahel in October 2020 (Source: MRT Press Release). Last year, the three countries combined received US$708 million according to the FTS
5 million people in Burkina Faso are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022 according to the Humanitarian Response Plan (Source: OCHA)
155 health facilities in the country do not operate due to insecurity and violence (Source: Health Cluster January 2022). 43 reported incidents of violence or threat of violence against health care in 2021 (Source: Insecurity Insight)

New Oxfam report uncovers stories from “prison-like” EU funded refugee center

March 7, 2022

New report from the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and Oxfam sheds light on the inside of the new 43-million-euro migration center on the Greek island of Samos. The report comes ahead of the 6-year anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, and in the midst of already more than a million people fleeing conflict in Ukraine to seek asylum in EU countries. If ever there was a time to learn from the failures made in Greece, it is now.

The report found:

Approximately 1 in 5 people have been in de facto detention for two months. This is despite a Greek court finding this practice illegal in the ruling on a case of an Afghan resident in the Samos center last December. The Greek administration continues to deny this illegal practice. Yet, testimonies gathered by the Greek Council for Refugees and Oxfam show this practice remains very much a reality.
The use of “revenge tactics” in response to NGO reports, media coverage, and legal action by asylum seekers on illegal detention measures. This has included early morning raids, unexplained transfers to the police station, and oral eviction notices to residents appealing a negative asylum decision.
The excessive use of security. There is constant CCTV monitoring of all residents and an 8pm curfew. To exit and enter the camp, residents need an “asylum applicant” card. Some people – like the newly arrived, those who can’t afford the second subsequent asylum application fee, or those waiting for the Greek authorities to examine their subsequent asylum application – do not have this card. In the future, not having these cards may keep people from getting food and clothes.

Testimony from T., a young Afghan man, trapped on Samos since 2019:

“I just want to go outside. They don’t let me. They are keeping me here as a prisoner. If I had to choose, I would say that I would prefer the previous camp – at least, there, I was free. I was not living in a cage. At least, I had my freedom to go somewhere.”

This reception center in Samos will serve as the blueprint for the EU’s rollout of centers across the Greek islands. Costing the EU 276 million euros, they are a “new chapter in migration management” according to EU officials, and have the explicit aim to “discourage them from coming in the first place” according to the Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum. The EU has already invested in building two new centers on the islands of Kos and Leros and has plans to build two new centers on Chios and Lesvos.

Alkistis Agrafioti, Advocacy Officer at the Greek Council for Refugees:

“Going to the center, you have only one question: how is this suitable for people? It feels like visiting a prison located in the middle of nowhere. To enter and exit, people must go through a whole array of security measures with turnstiles, magnetic gates, x-rays, scanning cards and fingerprints. Body and bag searches as well. According to testimonies, even children going to school do not escape this daily procedure.

“What we saw when visiting the new Samos center and what people told us is that their previous degrading living conditions at the old Vathy camp just turned into prison like conditions in the new facility. The security guards are all over and you feel followed at every step. One resident we talked to told us how it felt like there were three security guards to one person. We met with an Afghan young man, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, that has turned to self-harm several times as he is trapped on the island for the last 3 years. For two months, he could not even exit the new facility due to an illegal exit ban. Many asked ‘what are we being punished for, when all we want is to rebuild our lives and be safe in Europe?’”

Evelien van Roemburg, Head of Oxfam EU Office:

“Over half a million people have already crossed Ukraine’s border fleeing a conflict that, according to the UN, could displace 4 million Ukrainians. Now more than ever, the EU must show their lessons learned from its migration response in Greece. As countries bordering Ukraine are receiving most asylum seekers, we cannot risk a repetition of another scraped together European response. The EU and all governments must come together and share collective responsibility to ensure the right of all people, no matter the country they came from, to find a safe refuge.

“This month marks six years since the EU-Turkey deal. And yet, what has the EU done? There is no agreement on migration and asylum rules. The decisions the EU does take, such as this one on closed centers, are taken with little thought to the people they will affect. The EU is hellbent on following its policy of deterrence, a policy that promotes ‘prison’ like conditions, de facto detention and human rights violations. This is not normal, nor is it necessary.

“Alternatives exist. The EU should invest in accommodation that fosters integration and allows people to prosper. It should not be located on the fringes of society, but instead allow people to take part in daily life and have access to basic services like going to the doctor.”

Notes:

Read the Lesbos Bulletin and our Stories from Samos publication.

Names of persons in testimonies changes to protect anonymity.

In December 2021, a GCR and Oxfam delegation visited the Samos CCAC and met with residents, the administration, and civil society organisations operating on the island which provide legal, medical and psychosocial aid to migrants.

In September 2021, the Greek government opened the first Closed Controlled Access Center (CCAC) on the island of Samos built with 43 million euro in EU funds.

In March 2016, EU and Turkish leaders struck a deal which stated that people arriving to the Greek islands irregularly will be returned to Turkey. In exchange, the EU promised 6 billion euros in EU funding to Turkey to support refugee integration and agreed to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey for every Syrian returned.

Asylum seekers submitting a second subsequent asylum application must pay a fee of 100 euros. This means that a couple with two children must pay 400 euros. This Greek provision is against EU (Asylum Procedures Directive) and international law. Asylum seekers whose circumstances may have changed since their initial application and now have a much higher chance of receiving a positive asylum decision, still are required to pay this fee e.g. people from Afghanistan. Yet many cannot afford it.

In December, the number of people banned from exiting the camp was around 100, out of the 450 residents.

Οn 17 December 2021, the Administrative Court of Syros, ruling in the case of an Afghan resident of the facility and represented by GCR, confirmed that the prohibition of exit from the Samos CCAC imposed by the Greek state was unlawful.

Residents in Samos CCAC have limited access to healthcare. There is no doctor or medical staff based inside the camp, and residents must rely on the sporadic visits of a military doctor.

For updates, please follow @OxfamEU.

Protection of civilians in Ukraine conflict

March 4, 2022

As a humanitarian organisation, Oxfam is horrified by the loss of life being witnessed, and gravely concerned by the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine. We call for an immediate end to hostilities. The protection of life is of paramount importance. It is vital that civilians everywhere are safeguarded and we stand in solidarity with all those affected by violence, wherever they may be.

The protection of civilians must be assured: respect for international law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations are vital to preserve peace. All Members of the United Nations must redouble their commitment to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered” as the UN Charter requires.

In any conflict it is always the most vulnerable people who are the worst affected. As conflict and its consequences ravage economies, it is the poor on both sides who will lose their jobs and their access to services, and who will struggle most to cope with daily life. As ordinary men and women are pulled into a conflict they do not want, children and the elderly will be left without support.

As of today, the UN estimates that 386,000 people have already fled Ukraine into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other surrounding countries. Without peace, these numbers will sharply increase as people are displaced both internally and outside of Ukraine’s borders.

All people have the right to flee from conflict, and to seek asylum in safe countries. As countries bordering Ukraine receive tens of thousands of asylum seekers, Oxfam appeals to all governments to ensure that they find safe refuge. This must apply equally to all people fleeing conflict, whether from Ukraine, or to those in Yemen and Afghanistan and beyond. At moments where there is the greatest peril to human life, we must stand together in our common humanity, united in our pursuit of peace and human rights for all people.

COVID-19 death toll four times higher in lower-income countries than rich ones

March 3, 2022

3 million people died since the Omicron variant emerged, shattering perceptions that the pandemic is over

The COVID-19 death toll has been four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich ones, according to a new report published today by Oxfam on behalf of the People’s Vaccine Alliance as the world marks two years since the World Health Organisation declared the pandemic.

While the pandemic has been devastating for rich countries like Aotearoa New Zealand the world’s poorest countries have been hardest hit, with women and children bearing a disproportionate burden. Lack of testing and reporting means that very large numbers of deaths due to COVID-19 go unreported, especially in the poorest countries. Modelling using measures of excess deaths estimates that 19.6 million people have died because of COVID-19, over three times the official death toll. Based on this analysis, Oxfam calculated that for every death in a high-income country, an estimated four other people have died in a low or lower-middle income country. On a per capita basis, deaths in low and lower middle-income countries are 31% higher than high income countries.

Oxfam also calculated that three million COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the three months since the Omicron variant emerged. The figure shatters perceptions that Omicron’s milder illness means the pandemic is coming to an end, as the more contagious variant tears through unvaccinated populations. By some estimates, over half of humanity is set to have been infected with COVID-19 by the end of March 2022. While most cases will be mild, the sheer number of cases means that numbers of deaths remain high.

The report also outlines that:

Every minute, four children around the world have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID. In India alone, more than two million children lost a caregiver.
Women have been 1.4 times more likely to drop out of the labour force than men because of the pandemic.
73 percent of people in high income countries are fully vaccinated while just six percent of people in low-income countries are.

However, not everyone has lost out due to the pandemic, with a new billionaire created every 26 hours. Of those new billionaires, 40 are COVID-19 billionaires, having made their billions profiting from vaccines, treatments, tests, and personal protective equipment (PPE). During the pandemic, the world’s 10 richest men have seen their fortunes double, rising at a rate of $1.3 billion a day, or $15,000 dollars a second.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, said:

“After two years, we all want this pandemic to be over, but politicians in rich countries are exploiting that fatigue to ignore the devastating impact of COVID-19 that continues to this day.

“While incredibly effective vaccines provided hope, rich countries derailed the global vaccine rollout with nationalism, greed, and self-interest. Suggestions that we are entering a ‘post-COVID era’ ignore the continuing deaths in primarily lower-income countries that could be prevented by vaccines.”

Oxfam is part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a global coalition of nearly 100 organisations, campaigning for vaccine equity through support for a waiver of intellectual property rules on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and by making pharmaceutical companies share their science and knowhow with qualified producers in developing countries, so they are able to make their own doses.

Maaza Seyoum, Global South Convenor for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“Rich countries and corporations have tied up the global response to COVID-19 for their own benefit, leaving the global south to bear the brunt of this pandemic.

“As billions of people are still unable to access vaccines, some have the audacity to claim that the pandemic is over. That is an utter fallacy. Third and fourth doses in rich countries alone cannot erase the ever-rising death toll in lower-income countries.

“The charity approach to global vaccination has failed. Global south countries can and must manufacture vaccines and treatments for themselves – and they must maintain control of their own supplies. Rich countries must waive intellectual property rules on COVID-19 technologies and force big pharma to share the recipes.”

The report, Pandemic of Greed, warns that dangerous myths have fuelled the pandemic and excused a lack of bold and innovative policy action.

Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University, said:

“While Omicron tends to lead to a milder illness in many, the variant’s higher transmissibility means it can cut a deadly swath through countries, particularly among the unvaccinated. We may all be done with the coronavirus, but the coronavirus is not done with all of us.

“There must be a better way out of the suffering of the past two years, a way where everyone had access to vaccines, and no one was disposable. Public health decisions must be based on comprehensive evidence, not political agendas.

“The ‘post-COVID’ narrative emerging from rich countries will only worsen the complacency that has plagued the global fight against COVID-19. The global south understandably wants to take things into their own hands – and rich countries should let them.”

Notes:

See the full report here.

Oxfam reaction to the IPCC’s Working Group II report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability

March 1, 2022

Responding to the publication of the IPCC’s Working Group II report assessing climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, Oxfam’s Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said:

“This catalogue of pain, loss and suffering must be a wake-up call to everyone. The poorest who have done the least to contribute to climate change are suffering the most and we have a moral responsibility to help those communities adapt.

“Inequality is at the heart of today’s climate crisis —in the little over 100 days since COP26, the richest 1 percent of the world’s population have emitted much more carbon than the population of Africa does in an entire year. The super-rich are racing through the planet’s small remaining carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Clearly the time has come to claw back their outsized wealth, power and consumption through wealth taxes or bans on carbon-hungry luxury goods like private jets and mega yachts.

“People living in the most affected countries do not need this report to tell them that the climate has changed. The highest price is already being paid by the cattle farmer in Somalia whose entire herd has died from thirst. By the mother sheltering in a school gym in the Philippines because her home was swept away just before Christmas.

“Regardless of how quickly governments and corporations cut carbon emissions, some warming is already baked-in from our past behaviour. It’s short sighted —and too late— to focus almost exclusively on mitigation. Billions of people need early warning systems, access to renewable energy and improved crop production now, not after we bring emissions under control.

“Only a fourth of all climate finance to vulnerable countries is for adaptation. The recent agreement at COP26 to double adaptation finance to US$40 billion by 2025 will help, but it’s nowhere near enough. The UN estimates that developing countries need US$70 billion every year to adapt, and those costs are not falling. Rich countries are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis and must do more to support the poorest communities whose citizens struggle to meet their daily needs let alone prepare for the future.

“The other clear message from this report is that we are all in the driving seat. Our foot is on the accelerator and every squeeze produces more harmful gases and higher temperatures. Every ton of carbon we avoid increases the chances of a liveable planet —there is a huge difference between 1.5°C and 1.6°C of heating.

“We must adapt, and we must ensure the planet remains adaptable. Because runaway global heating will only lead to events that we cannot build back from —deaths, submerged homes, unfarmable wastelands, and mass migrations of desperate people.”

Notes:

Since COP26, the world’s richest 1 percent (79 million people) have emitted an estimated 1.7 billion tons in carbon emissions. This is more than the continent of Africa emits in an entire year, home to almost 1.4 billion people. According to the Global Carbon Project, Africa’s consumption emissions for 2019 (latest year available) were 1.03 billion tons (1.03 billion tons divided by 365 x 107 = 294 million tons emitted by Africa in 107 days). Calculations were made using Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Confronting Carbon Inequality report.

Recent data from Oxfam shows that the wealthiest 1 percent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 percent, and that by 2030, their carbon footprints are in fact set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.

According to Boat International, the superyacht industry has largely shrugged off the COVID-19 pandemic to record a third year of consistent order book growth. The 2022 Global Order Book records 1,024 projects in build or on order, a rise of 24.7 percent on last year’s 821.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), developed countries provided only around US$80 billion in climate finance in 2019. While the UN Secretary-General, Oxfam and others have called for half the money to be spent on adaptation, only about a quarter of total climate finance goes to adaptation.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that annual adaptation costs in developing countries are expected to reach US$140 to US$300 billion in 2030 and US$280 to US$500 billion in 2050.

The UNFCCC estimates Somalia could need US$48.5 billion to adapt to climate change between now and 2030. Somalia’s GDP is less than US$7 billion (2020).