The number of refugees who have fled Syria due to the ongoing civil war now number more than a million, according to the UNHCR.
ESCAPING WAR: Syrian women, some carrying children, cross into Jordan from southern Syria. PICTURE: UNHCR/N Daoud
The UN refugee agency says that more than 400,000 Syrians have become refugees since 1st January alone – a figure which shows a dramatic increase in the number now fleeing the country.
Around half of the refugees are children and the majority of these are aged under 11. While most of the refugees have fled to countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, they were increasingly also fleeing to North Africa and Europe.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ant‚àö‚â•nio Guterres said this week that with thousands crossing the border daily, Syria is “spiralling towards full-scale disaster”.
“We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched. This tragedy has to be stopped.”
The refugees are increasingly putting a strain on the resources of the countries they are arriving in with Lebanon’s population having increased by 10 per cent as a result of the crisis, Turkey having spent more than $US600 million in establishing refugee camps and Iraq, already dealing a million internally displaced people, now confronted with a further 100,000 people from Syria.
