Food insecurity
threatens Syrian refugees

Vulnerability assessment highlights

nutrition, shelter, education, and health issues

Food insecurity is the most concerning issue among Syrian refugees, according to the 2022 Vulnerability Assessment (VASyR), a study that analyzes Syrian refugee households to provide a multi-sectoral update of their situation. It is carried out by the UN Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The study revealed that households are cutting down on meals. Adults are consuming less food to allow their children to eat. They are also reducing expenditures on health and education to prioritize buying food. Most families have accumulated high debt burdens, with the majority borrowing to buy food. Nearly 87 percent of families listed food as their main priority followed by housing and healthcare.

Children’s nutrition is at risk, with less than half of infants under five months of age being exclusively breastfed, and only 11 percent meeting the minimum number of meals and food groups per day.

Shelter is another problem, where rental prices (in lira) have increased by 176 percent compared to 2018. More than half of renters are late in payments. The number of eviction threats also increased: 66 percent of households are expected to leave their place of residence within a month.

The study also featured the limitations of access to medical services, where 18 percent of individuals had health problems that required healthcare in the last three months, but 27 percent of them didn’t receive it.

The rate of school attendance among 6-14 years old children increased to 60 percent compared to 53 percent last year, but the attendance rate dropped to eight percent for older adolescents at upper secondary school levels (15-17 years old). The costs of transportation and of school materials were the two top reasons for not attending school.

The VASyr study noted that local communities are also struggling to cope.

The study is the tenth annual survey assessing the situation of a representative sample of 5,090 Syrian refugee households across the country, including 25,381 individuals.