SAD: Two Million Syrians Are Refugees, The Number Will Increase - UNHCR

Now when the war in Syria is into its third year, the number of Syrian refugees passed the threshold of two million and it is expected to keep increasing, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported on Tuesday, September 3. 

The information is contained in the UNHCR press release issued today.

The report says the current trend is “alarming, representing a jump of almost 1.8 million people” in a year.The number of two million represents Syrians who have registered as refugees or who are awaiting registration.

One year ago, the number of people registered as refugees or those waiting to be registered, was 230,671 people.

“Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history,” said António Guterres, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.

According to the report, more than 97 per cent of Syria’s refugees are hosted by the neighboring countries.

They urgently need international support to help them deal with the crisis, that brings to their counties about 5000 Syrians daily.

In a bid to accelerate international support, the ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey will meet with UNHCR in Geneva on Wednesday, 4 September.

As of end August the number of people fleeing the war in Syria reached 110,000 in Egypt, 168,000 in Iraq, 515,000 in Jordan, 460,000 in Turkey. Lebanon has received the biggest amount of refugees so far - 716,000.

About 52 per cent of this population are children aged 17 years or below, and the number of Syrian child refugees had exceeded a million, UNHCR report says.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie expressed her dismay at the level of death and sufferings in Syria.
“The world is tragically disunited on how to end the Syria conflict,” she said. “But there should be no disagreement over the need to alleviate human suffering, and no doubt of the world's responsibility to do more. We have to support the millions of innocent people ripped from their homes, and increase the ability of neighboringcountries to cope with the influx."

Source: UNHCR