U.N. alerts Iraqi refugees in Syria via text message

The U.N. refugee agency is alerting more than 33,000 vulnerable Iraqi refugees in Damascus through text messages on cell phones.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees started a new food distribution program in Syria by sending 10,000 text messages to those eligible, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said on Friday.

UNHCR has "found text messages to mobile phones are one of the most effective ways of communicating with the refugees, who often do not have a stable address but either they or someone close to them in their immediate community has a mobile phone," Okabe said.

[via Reuters]

emily | 11:21 AM | News, Buzz |
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