Ongoing crisis crushes Syrians lives: UN-backed report

The ongoing crisis in Syria has had a “catastrophic” effect on the socioeconomic aspects of people’s lives in the Arab country, a United Nations-backed report reflects, drawing a gloomy picture of life there.

Released on March 10th, the report entitled Syria: Alienation and violence, Impact of the Syria Crisis was developed by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

“While crushing the aspirations of the Syrian people and their ability to build and form institutions that can restore human security and respect human dignity and rights, the armed conflict has depleted the capital and wealth of the country,” the report said.

The report also says that the ongoing deadly crisis in the Middle Eastern country has hollowed up its population by 15 percent.

“The population of Syria was hollowed out by 15 percent as 3.33 million Syrians fled as refugees to other countries, together with a 1.55 million persons who migrated to find work and a safer life elsewhere,” the report noted, adding, “Within the remaining population of Syria, some 6.8 million people had been internally displaced.”

The report further highlights that in excess of 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes and “the appalling loss of life” has reached 210,000 people.

It also alarms that as many as 840,000 people have suffered injuries in the armed conflict in the country.

“Equally horrendous is the silent disaster that has reduced life expectancy at birth from 75.9 years in 2010 to an estimated 55.7 years at the end of 2014, reducing longevity and life expectancy by 27 per cent,” the report noted.

The report also sheds light on the impact of the crisis on the economy of the country, saying, “Total economic loss since the start of the conflict until the end of 2014 is estimated at $202.6 billion, with damage to capital stock accounting for 35.5 per cent of this loss.”

“Total economic loss is equivalent to 383 per cent of the GDP of 2010 in constant prices,” it warns.

“The people of Syria are now forced to live under a terrible state of exception, estrangement and alienation with a massive social, political and economic chasm dividing them from those involved in violence and the institutions of violence,” the report concludes.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. The violence fueled by ISIL Takfiri groups has reportedly been supported by the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.