The Syrian refugee situation shows no signs of abating anytime soon , promising to become a protracted refugee crisis . As such , in February 2016 , Germany , the United Kingdom , Kuwait , Norway , and the United Nations co-hosted the London Conference (“ Supporting Syria and the Region ”) to raise funds for the billions of dollars of international aid necessary to meet both short-term and longer-term needs for the refugee crisis . This aid is fed into the 3RP Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan , a coordinated regional framework of over 200 partners which addresses humanitarian relief and stabilization in the five neighboring countries most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis – Lebanon , Jordan , Turkey , Iraq , and Egypt . According to the 3RP Mid-year Report ( 2016 ), over USD 11.22 billion was pledged at the London Conference for the crisis – which included multi-year funding from 2016-2020 . These pledges would fulfill 76 % of the appeal by the UN and NGOs for the response . So far , however , the disbursement has been slow , only USD 1.38 billion received by 31 May 2016 , which is 30 % of the revised interagency 2016 appeal for $ 4.54 billion . This comes after the 2015 UN humanitarian appeal for the Syrian crisis was only 61 % funded at the year ’ s end . This underfunding is negatively impacting 3RP programs , compromising child protection , food security , education , health & nutrition , basic needs , shelter , water systems & hygiene , and livelihoods for refugees in the neighboring host countries .
In addition to supporting host nations with money and resources , resettlement is a real and necessary option in the case of protracted displacement , especially when a conflict such as the Syrian civil war shows no signs of abating . According to the UN Refugee Agency ( UNHCR ), at least 450,000 people ( 10 %) from these neighboring host countries needed resettlement ( as of February 2016 ). Yet , nations around the world have been hesitant to allocate resettlement slots for Syrian refugees on a large scale . “ In total , [ only ] 162,151 resettlement places have been offered globally since the start of the Syria crisis , which equates to a mere 3.6 % of the total population of Syrian refugees in Lebanon , Jordan , Iraq , Egypt and Turkey ,” ( Amnesty International , February 2016 ). Many Gulf countries are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention and thus had not offered official UN resettlement slots to Syrian refugees , nor had various higher income countries such as Russia , Singapore , Japan , and South Korea , according to Amnesty International . A notable exception is Germany , who ( as of February 2016 ), had pledged 39,987 slots for Syrian refugees , which comprised 54 % of the European Union ’ s total effort . The remaining EU countries ( excluding Sweden / Germany ), had only pledged a total of 30,903 slots – a mere 0.7 % of the population of refugees in neighboring host countries . By December 2015 , only a total of 2,200 Syrians had been resettled to the United States since the war began in 2011 .
European countries and the U . S . have been hesitant to let refugees enter due in part to security concerns . Europe has suffered several terror attacks over the past two years . Several of the attacks were in fact carried out by European citizens , not refugees or asylum-seekers – such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks ( January 7 , 2015 – Paris , France ). Although a Syrian passport was found at the
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