Ms Gráinne O'Hara:

I am grateful for the opportunity to address the committee this morning on the UNHCR's work in the Middle East and north Africa, particularly the refugee response to the situations in Syria and Iraq. I do not intend to read all of my written statement, which was submitted to the committee in advance of today's meeting. I will pick out some highlights in the interests of having more time for questions and answers. I am the head of the UNHCR's protection service for the Middle East and North Africa region. I operate out of Amman. The team I lead comprises a series of experts on issues like gender, child protection, education and other key thematic functions. Our geographical area of coverage spans the entirety of north Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf and Israel. I will focus this morning on our two largest operations in the region, in Syria and Iraq.

Syria is one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time. We are now into the sixth year of conflict. The fighting in Syria has caused unprecedented levels of humanitarian need. The disregard for human life and acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale that have been seen in Syria and in neighbouring Iraq have led to enormous suffering and destruction. Displacement internal to the region and further afield is one of the fundamental characteristics of both of these crises. It is estimated that 13.5 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance, including 6.3 million people who have been internally displaced. Some 4.6 million people live in places which continue to be hard for humanitarian actors to reach. As many as 700,000 people are living in besieged areas. This figure has decreased in recent times as a result of the evacuation of Aleppo in the week before Christmas. The consequences of the situation in Syria have a regional dimension that affects all of the neighbouring countries. Over 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees are hosted in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Turkey is the largest single host country of refugees anywhere in the world.

Syrian refugees continue to need international protection. Host governments, local communities and humanitarian partners, including UNHCR, are continuing to work in support of the respect of the basic rights, protection and physical security of all populations affected by the Syria and Iraq crises, including those stranded at borders.

Over the past year, a number of significant high-profile events including the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in February 2016, and the London conference on supporting Syria and the region in February 2016 have highlighted the need for changes in the way humanitarian crises are funded. The day before yesterday I attended an event hosted by the Finnish Government to launch this year's humanitarian appeal for Syria. That comprises the regional refugee and resilience plan with a price tag of €4.4 billion in response to the needs of the 4.8 million Syrian refugees and the communities that host them. In addition there is the Syrian humanitarian response plan, which is another $3.4 billion.

Funding continues to be crucial to meet refugee needs. While donors have generously contributed some $10 billion to the international appeal since 2012, in recent years the humanitarian appeals have only reached about 60% funding, which, of course, has implications for the programmes carried out by UNHCR, other UN organisations and numerous NGOs that are responding to the Syria and Iraq crises.

I will say some words specific to Iraq which may not get as much coverage in the media as Syria. Alongside Syria, Iraq is one of the biggest operational responses we have in the region. Since January 2014, escalating violence in Iraq has led to the internal displacement of over 3 million people. In addition there are 245,000 Iraqi refugees in the region, half of these hosted by Turkey. At the same time some people are returning to their places of origin in more stabilised locations. However, the sustainability of returns continues to be hampered by widespread destruction of infrastructure and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance.

Currently the focus of the humanitarian response in Iraq is very much centred on the situation in Mosul. The retaking of Mosul city, which has been under the control of ISIS for more than two years is a primary objective of the Iraqi Government and its allies. Since the start of the military offensive in October 2016, over 162,000 people have been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas as the military offensive to retake the city advances. As part of the emergency response for Mosul, UNHCR has been heavily involved in the establishment of new camps, the upgrading of existing camps, and the general provision of emergency shelter assistance to persons who have been displaced.

Across the region, key elements of our programmes such as the Syria operation, the Iraq operation and other situations in the Middle East and north Africa, including Yemen and Libya, include such activities as biometric registration. I am referring to the registration of refugees so that we have an accurate database of the number and profile of refugees, which informs the response programmes for which we have just launched this appeal in Helsinki.

Winter assistance is a fundamental characteristic of the response plan. We have been fortunate so far this season in the Syria response plan not to see the freezing temperatures that have been seen in some places in Europe. However, the winter assistance plan is costly. We have many refuges in the neighbouring countries to Syria and Iraq still living under tented accommodation. The winter assistance programme is essential for their survival.

Cash assistance is an increasingly important characteristic of the humanitarian response. Here I refer to the increasing use of cash as a direct means of assistance as a complement to in-kind forms of assistance.

I wish to speak about global responsibility sharing. I have referred many times to the number of refugees and displaced generated by both the Syria and Iraq situations. Particularly in the case of the Syrian response with 4.8 million refugees, the vast majority of them continue to live in the immediate neighbouring countries. As part of global responsibility sharing the UNHCR pursues the use of resettlement to third countries. We have been appealing for an increase in the number of resettlement places. Ireland is among those countries that offers resettlement places to Syrian and Iraqi refugees - a modest, but not insignificant offer of up to 4,000 places, which allows the UNHCR to ensure that some of the refugees most in need with the most acute protection problems have the option to be moved elsewhere out of the region.

I echo the Chairman's opening comments that what is needed in the region and particularly for Syria and Iraq are political solutions to the conflicts and crises that have generated so much humanitarian suffering. The humanitarian response is in a way a reaction to the symptoms of crisis but cannot in itself solve crises. I thank the members of the committee for their attention.