Germany announces $135m for UN refugee agency

Germany announced Friday (Sep. 28) it would provide the UN’s cash-strapped refugee agency with an extra $135 million in funds to help cope with the massive outpouring of Syrians into neighbouring Arab countries.

In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was "shameful" that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was running short of cash to aid the millions of Syrians who have fled war in their homeland and called on other wealthy countries to step up to the plate.

"As the second-largest humanitarian donor, Germany is willing to provide UNHCR with a further 116 million Euros ($135 million) - that is half of the amount currently needed - to help Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon," Maas said.

"But others also need to step up. After all, the Charter talks about ’we the peoples’," he said in reference to the UN’s founding treaty.

Syrians accounted for a significant proportion of the hundreds of thousands of migrants that Germany has accepted across its border since 2015 .

With immigration becoming an increasingly toxic issue in Germany, Merkel’s government has since repeatedly tightened immigration and asylum laws.

The United Nations "thrives on our common pledge of ’together first’," said Maas whose center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior partner in Merkel’s coalition.

According to the UN, around 5.6 million Syrians are living outside the country as refugees as a result of a devastating seven-year war.