Despair of Syrian refugees grows as UN agency forced to cut food aid in Mideast host countries

Syrian refugee, Mohammad, from the town of Dra, who lost his left leg during bombings in Damascus last year, waits at the Athens port of Piraeus on Friday, Sept. 4, 2015, after his arrival from the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos. About 2,500 people arrived on the ferry Eleftherios Venizelos. The Greek Government does not see an end to the flood of refugees and migrants anytime soon with the vast majority of migrants reaching five eastern Greek islands, with Lesbos seeing 50 percent of the arrivals. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) (The Associated Press)

A girl blows soap bubbles at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Serbia, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Hundreds of migrants frustrated at being stuck at two train stations in Hungary set off on foot for Austria on Friday, one group forming a line nearly a half-mile long as they streamed out of Budapest, the other breaking out of a train near a migrant reception center and then running toward the West after overwhelming police. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) (The Associated Press)

A Syrian man carrying a child, left, scuffles with a Hungarian nationalist in front of the Keleti train station in Budapest, Serbia, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Minor skirmishes broke out at the Keleti train station Friday, where hundreds of migrants and refugees camp. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) (The Associated Press)

The cash-strapped World Food Program says it has had to drop one-third of Syrian refugees from its aid program in Mideast host countries this year, including more than 200,000 in Jordan who lost aid this month.

The cutbacks come at a time when more desperate Syrians are trying to reach Europe.

More than 4 million Syrians fled their country's civil war since 2011, most settling in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

WFP regional spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said Friday that the number of refugees receiving its food aid was cut from 2.1 million to 1.4 million since March.

Etefa says the world must do more to support refugees in their host countries or face increasing migration, saying, "We have to help people where they are or they will move."