Amman, Jordan • The cash-strapped World Food Program (WFP) has had to drop one-third of Syrian refugees from its food voucher program in Middle Eastern host countries this year, including 229,000 in Jordan who stopped receiving food aid in September, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The sharp cutbacks come at a time when growing numbers of desperate Syrians who initially found refuge in neighboring countries are trying to reach Europe. Since 2011, more than 4 million Syrians fled their country's civil war, most settling in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
Abeer Etefa, a WFP regional spokeswoman, said the world must do more to support refugees in the regional host countries or face increasing migration.
"This is a crisis that has been brewing in the region for five years," she said. "Now it is getting the attention of the world because it moved one step further from the region to Europe. We have to help people where they are or they will move."
The U.N. agency has been distributing food vouchers to refugees since the beginning of the Syria war, but it is facing increasing funding gaps. "Since the beginning of this operation, it has been hand to mouth," Etefa said. "It is nerve-wracking for the refugees and the staff."
She said the agency needs $236 million to keep the program — even in its scaled-back version — funded through November. No major donors have come forward, she said.
Since the beginning of the year, the agency reduced the number of voucher recipients in the regional host countries from 2.1 million to around 1.4 million and sharply reduced the value of the vouchers. The maximum is now $14 per person per month for urban refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.
Etefa said the agency tries to give priority to the most vulnerable refugees.
This month, refugees in Jordan faced the biggest cuts. Jordan hosts about 630,000 Syrian refugees, including more than half a million in communities and the rest in camps. As of September, 229,000 of 440,000 urban refugees who had been receiving some food aid lost their benefits, Etefa said. Those living in the camps continue to receive food vouchers.
With conditions in the host countries worsening, thousands of Syrian refugees have been trying to reach Europe, many attempting treacherous sea voyages.
Last week, the U.N. warned that 40 percent of children from five conflict-scarred Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, are not in school, and losing this generation will lead to more militancy and migration.
Relatives of 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy Aylan Kurdi carry his body, center, during his funeral procession with his mother Rehan, and his older brother Galip, in Kobani, Syria, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. The Syrian man who survived a capsizing during a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece buried his wife and two sons on Friday in their hometown of Kobani, returning them to the conflict-torn Syrian Kurdish region they had fled. Aylan's body was discovered on a Turkish beach in sneakers, blue shorts and a red shirt on Wednesday after the small rubber boat he and his family were in capsized. They were among 12 migrants who drowned off the Turkish coast of Bodrum that day. (Sipan Ibrahim via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Relatives of 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy Aylan Kurdi carry his body, center, during his funeral procession with his mother Rehan, and his older brother Galib, in Kobani, Syria, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. The Syrian man who survived a capsizing during a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece buried his wife and two sons on Friday in their hometown of Kobani, returning them to the conflict-torn Syrian Kurdish region they had fled. Aylan's body was discovered on a Turkish beach in sneakers, blue shorts and a red shirt on Wednesday after the small rubber boat he and his family were in capsized. They were among 12 migrants who drowned off the Turkish coast of Bodrum that day. (AP Photo/Sipan Ibrahim) MANDATORY CREDIT
Relatives of 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy Aylan Kurdi carry his body, center, during his funeral procession with his mother Rehan, and his older brother Galib, in Kobani, Syria, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. The Syrian man who survived a capsizing during a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece buried his wife and two sons on Friday in their hometown of Kobani, returning them to the conflict-torn Syrian Kurdish region they had fled. Aylan's body was discovered on a Turkish beach in sneakers, blue shorts and a red shirt on Wednesday after the small rubber boat he and his family were in capsized. They were among 12 migrants who drowned off the Turkish coast of Bodrum that day. (AP Photo/Sipan Ibrahim) MANDATORY CREDIT
A Syrian man carrying a child, left, scuffles with a Hungarian nationalist in front of the Keleti train station in Budapest, Serbia, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Minor skirmishes broke out at the Keleti train station Friday, where hundreds of migrants and refugees camp. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
A girl blows soap bubbles at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Serbia, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Hundreds of migrants frustrated at being stuck at two train stations in Hungary set off on foot for Austria on Friday, one group forming a line nearly a half-mile long as they streamed out of Budapest, the other breaking out of a train near a migrant reception center and then running toward the West after overwhelming police. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
A man runs with child in arms as he tries to board a bus provided by Hungarian authorities for migrants and refugees at Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015. Hundreds of migrants boarded buses provided by Hungary's government as Austria in the early-morning hours said it and Germany would let them in. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announced the decision early Saturday after speaking with Angela Merkel, his German counterpart - not long after Hungary's surprise nighttime move to provide buses for the weary travelers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
A young man stands inside a bus provided by Hungarian authorities for migrants and refugees at Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015. Hundreds of migrants boarded buses provided by Hungary's government as Austria in the early-morning hours said it and Germany would let them in. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announced the decision early Saturday after speaking with Angela Merkel, his German counterpart - not long after Hungary's surprise nighttime move to provide buses for the weary travelers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Syrian people wait at the port of Lesbos island, Greece, to board a ferry traveling to Athens, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2015. The island of some 100,000 residents has been transformed by the sudden new population of some 20,000 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
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