http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/middleeast/united-nations-wins-government-pledges-for-resettling-syrian-refugees.html 2014-12-10 00:56:24 U.N. Wins Government Pledges for Resettling Syrian Refugees The United Nations refugee agency said that the number of Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement would more than double as a result of commitments given by governments at a conference in Geneva. === GENEVA — The António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said after the meeting that he was “very happy” with the outcome of the conference in which 28 countries made firm commitments to accept 66,254 Syrian refugees and 11 other countries said they were exploring options or preparing to expand existing programs. That brings the refugee agency’s estimate of the total number of resettlement places being offered to more than 100,000. Mr. Guterres said countries had offered only 40,000 places for Syrians so far this year, remarking, “we are confident we have clearly more than doubled” the number of resettlement places available. The commitments, however, do little to ease the strain on countries neighboring In Jordan, which says that about 1.4 million Syrians are living within its borders, local people “are beginning to voice frustration,” the country’s minister of interior, Hussein Majali, told the conference. Frustration appears to be growing among the refugees themselves. The total number accepted for resettlement since the start of the conflict in 2011 is just under 191,000, and in the past six months there has been a sharp increase in the number of Syrians risking dangerous journeys by boat across the Mediterranean in attempts to reach Europe. The refugee agency has called on countries to accept 130,000 Syrians in 2015 and 2016, and Mr. Guterres said that more than 300,000 Syrians had to be resettled for health or other reasons. Some of them are ill or have experienced trauma in the conflict. Others simply cannot return in safety to Syria, even when the civil war eventually ends. The commitments made in the conference Tuesday represented “an excellent interim result,” Mr. Guterres added, but he emphasized that they were the beginning, not the end, of the process. Germany, which has accepted 80,000 Syrians for resettlement, more than any other country, held back from making an immediate pledge to expand its program, instead voicing some impatience over the lack of action from other European countries. “We need a Europe-wide campaign in which all European countries shoulder their fair share of responsibility,” Emily Haber, Germany’s state secretary, told the meeting. But Britain, where the government faces growing public hostility to immigration, said it believed its response to Syria’s crisis was “best targeted on providing substantial humanitarian aid.” The United States and Canada have taken in a total of around 5,350 Syrian refugees, but Assistant Secretary of State Anne C. Richard told the gathering that America was considering around 9,000 resettlement applications and receiving around 1,000 new cases every month. “We expect admissions from Syria to surge in 2015 and beyond,” Ms. Richard said.