The conference in the United Kingdom's capital city brought together representatives from over 70 countries, largest international and non-governmental organizations, who discussed the international community's actions aimed to help the people of Syria and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, whose lives were torn apart by Syria's five-year conflict.
Linkevičius said that according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) data children made up more than half of the Syria refugee population. Most of the children are born into refugee camps and their experience of war as refugees will be the only one they ever know. Lithuania's Foreign Minister called on the participants of the conference to prevent lost generation of Syrian children – to ensure the right to education and create conditions for them to earn a dignified living in the future.
At the conference in London, Linkevičius announced Lithuania's pledge to allocate EUR 70,000 in humanitarian aid to support Syrian refugees this year: EUR 50,000 in humanitarian aid will be allocated to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help ease the plight of Syrians affected by the conflict and EUR 20,000 in humanitarian aid will be contributed to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for refugees in Turkey.
Last year, Lithuania contributed EUR 100,000 to the EU regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the 'Madad fund'.
