Jan Egeland and Humanitarian Groups

Save Children World Vision: His assessment comes as the world prepares this week to mark the fourth anniversary of the war, according to Brandon Sun. Egeland and various humanitarian groups across the globe called Wednesday for a diplomatic solution to a festering conflict that has destroyed the security of millions of people. Norwegian Jan Egeland, a former UN humanitarian chief now head of his country refugee agency, says without a concerted political push to end the war, the West could face decades of terrorism. Egeland agrees with the failing grade given to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday in a joint report by Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision. He says if countries don't force the issue of a solution to the Syria crisis many of the millions of children forced from their homes and deprived of school — and hope — will become tomorrow terrorists. "It will be biggest political mistake of this generation if we continue like now, because we will create a huge problem for generations to come," Egeland said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Norway. "Because we sow so much bitterness, we will harvest enormous problems." He says the West must also spend more to address the continuing humanitarian catastrophe. "Countries like Norway and Canada that take few refugees and also have a limited investment there in terms of humanitarian work — we provide cents per refugee, per day — we will meet the consequences of this policy in potentially decades to come." Canada has contributed more than $700 million to the Syrian crisis since 2012 and has committed to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by 2017. While Canada and other western countries debate anti-terror laws in the wake of attacks at home, Egeland says they ignore Syria at their peril. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.