Vessels left Dubai for Syria last week are carrying UNHCR’s largest consignment of relief items from its International Humanitarian City-based stockpile to help meet the needs of thousands of displaced persons in Syria.On Friday, the M/V England started sailing out of Duba’s Jebel Ali port carrying 24 containers each 40 feet in length loaded with UNHCR aid. This shipment follows the departure last week of the M/V Msc Messina which was loaded with 20 containers of specially produced UNHCR relief items.The 44 containers are scheduled to reach Syria’s Tartous seaport in about a month. This is UNHCR’s largest containerised shipment of relief aid this year from the agency’s Central Emergency Stockpile in Dubai’s International Humanitarian City to Syria. UNHCR’s shipment of relief items includes more than 29,000 plastic tarpaulins, 150,000 sleeping mats, 75,000 jerry cans and 30,000 kitchen sets. The aid will be stored in UNHCR’s warehouse in Tartous for onward distribution to internally displaced persons in war-affected communities throughout Syria. “This shipment is amongst the largest consignments of aid UNHCR Syria will have received this year and it is much awaited,” said Tarik Kurdi, UNHCR Representative in Syria. “The situation of Syria’s displaced people is dire, the urgently need these basic domestic items to survive.” UNHCR’s kits of core relief items have reached two million internally displaced persons inside Syria so far this year, which represents two-thirds of the three million people UNHCR plans to support by year-end. Such assistance has been delivered in all 14 Governorates of Syria, including in hard-to-reach.’This shipment will help 150,000 displaced Syrians in areas amongst the most difficult to reach, such as Idlib, Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor,’UNHCR’™s Tarik Kurdi declared.UNHCR’s 44 container shipment of relief items is part of the UN refugee agency’s efforts to help prepare many of Syria’s more than 4.25 million internally displaced persons for the upcoming winter. Overall, relief agencies estimate that there are more than 6.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance within Syria.In addition to its ongoing work inside Syria, UNHCR also oversees aid to more than 2.1 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, including more than 760,000 in Lebanon, 525,000 in Jordan, some 495,000 in Turkey, 192,000 in Iraq and 127,000 in Egypt.”We are proud to be able to provide first class services to facilitate our members continuous efforts in providing relief to Syria and other countries where it is needed the most,” said Shaima Al Zarooni, CEO of IHC. ” There is an increasing urgency for aid, and our members are dedicated to address the critical situation through every possible resource,” she added.Dubai’s IHC – an initiative established by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in 2003 – , is the UN refugee agency’s main global hub for aid items with stocks of blankets, tents, kitchen sets and other items.The IHC warehouses, strategically located between Dubai’s new Al Maktoum Airport and Jebel Ali seaport has enabled UNHCR to dispatch and deliver humanitarian necessities to more than 350,000 people within 24 to 48 hours.