Mr. Nasser Alheraki:

I thank Mr. O'Keeffe for that introduction. I am an area co-ordinator with GOAL in north-west Syria. I was born and raised in Aleppo in Syria. I graduated from Ebla University in banking and financial science. Before the start of the war I volunteered with the Red Crescent in Aleppo and I continued my humanitarian work in Aleppo during the first two years of the war. In August 2013, after the arbitrary arrest of my 15-year-old brother Nahel, and continuous pressure on my family from the security forces, we were forced to flee our home and arrived in Turkey.

It was not easy at first to learn a new culture and language, and to start a new life. We really hoped we could eventually go back to our country. However, engaging with the community and understanding the local way of life made it less difficult for us in more recent years.

In my role with GOAL I travel between Turkey and north-west Syria every week to work with our programme beneficiaries, our local staff and our implementing partners. We work in Idlib and northern Aleppo within an area that is roughly the size of County Galway. More than 4 million people live in Idlib and northern Aleppo under fear of shelling and bombardments. Over half of this population was displaced to this area from other areas of the country. Many had to escape conflict several times. Women and children make up the largest part of this population. In each location I visit, I meet people who were forced to leave their homes, and who lost family members, relatives and friends.

Over 500,000 civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than 400 humanitarian aid workers have been reported killed in the past ten years, but I suspect this number may be much higher. GOAL lost four of our colleagues: Nihad Alkadi; Zeiad Abdulhay; Hayyan Ramadan; and Mustafa Shoib. God bless their souls.

Memories of loss are countless. Each person is a dictionary of painful stories. It is not possible to imagine the number of times people I meet were forced to leave different locations to escape attacks and faced the cold in the streets, with no access to shelter or food.

We in GOAL strive to provide humanitarian assistance for the most vulnerable people in this area. We help to deliver clean piped water. We supply food, basic needs and emergency relief to these communities who have nothing to fall back on. These people have had to survive the harsh winter weather and the coronavirus outbreak in unfinished buildings or in crowded camps. Last year GOAL and its partners reached more than 1.3 million people in Idlib and northern Aleppo with food assistance. About 1 million of this population also received water from the 66 water stations that GOAL has supported and that supply 123 locations in Idlib.

This situation cannot continue for much longer. Unless a peaceful solution to the conflict is found, no amount of humanitarian aid will be enough. The co-ordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance is also at risk now. Ireland has a unique role to play today in making a difference for millions of people in Syria who have no means of survival other than humanitarian aid. As a co-penholder of the humanitarian file for Syria on the UN Security Council and as one of the world's foremost peacekeepers, Ireland can stress the importance of an immediate solution to the conflict and work to ensure that aid delivery corridors are kept open.

Despite the passing of ten years, we still lack any kind of solutions for Syrian families caught in the line of fire. If the UN Security Council decides to stop mandating the only remaining cross-border humanitarian aid corridor into north-west Syria in July, the timely and efficient delivery of assistance will be very difficult to maintain. The UN’s co-ordinating role will end and international humanitarian funding for north-west Syria, which is already in decline, may decrease further.

Mark Lowcock, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, recently noted that efforts to establish a cross-line delivery mechanism from Damascus to north-west Syria have failed. From my experience of humanitarian work in Aleppo in the first two years of the war, this is not surprising. I also know that the families I meet in north-west Syria will find it difficult to accept assistance that is overseen from Damascus, given how much they have suffered from war planes that come from the same direction.

I am aware that this is only part of the discussion, and that the UN Security Council decision will be debated behind closed doors, between countries that may be diplomatic rivals. However, as someone who sees the growing hardship on the ground every week, I can only stress that humanitarian access should follow humanitarian need and not politics. Ireland now has the opportunity to be the voice of humanitarianism in the Security Council - to speak with humanitarians, for humanitarians and for humanity. Perhaps the voice of compassion alone will not end this crisis, but this voice might help to ensure we can ease the suffering of people who have nowhere to escape.

I thank the committee for its support for GOAL and for giving me the opportunity to speak today.