The U.N. food aid that over 200,000 Syrian refugees rely on to survive is being completely cut off.
The refugees living in Jordan received the news via text messages from the UN who said “We have been forced to make some very difficult decisions.”
If you are 1 of the 229,000 @refugees in #Jordan that received these SMS’. No food frm @wfp this month or the future. pic.twitter.com/0aPpyikZYL
— Andrew Harper (@And_Harper) September 2, 2015
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The Huffington Post reports: The World Food Program has been warning since as early as last summer that a funding crisis has stretched the organization thin, and has caused the group to cut back on resources it can offer Syrian refugees in Jordan. But refugees say the latest announcement caught them completely off guard.
“What shall I do? Sell myself or sell my three girls?” Om Rabab, a refugee who goes by a pseudonym for security reasons, told BuzzFeed.
Earlier this month, 229,000 refugees who live in urban communities in Jordan, were notified that they would lose out entirely on their food vouchers. They had been receiving $14 per month, and now they will not receive any assistance from WFP, Julie Marshall, Canadian spokesperson for WFP, told The Huffington Post.
Their options right now are grim.
They can either return to a conflict zone in Syria, settle in a refugee camp or try making the risky journey to Europe.
This year alone, 2,500 migrants and refugees have died trying to get to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, according to UNHCR.
“We have been forced to make some very difficult decisions, and have cut rations of extremely vulnerable refugees, because we can no longer afford to continue at this level of assistance because of lack of funds,” Marshall said.
She confirmed to HuffPost that the aid decision was, in fact, delivered to the impacted refugees via text message. Marshall added that these types of announcements are disseminated via text message because it’s a “good way to reach” refugees.
