More than 4 million refugees have fled Syria since outbreak of civil war, United Nations

The UNHCR expects the figure to reach around 4.27 million by the end of 2015.

The number of Syrian refugees who have fled their country since the start of the civil war now exceeds 4 million, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The more than 1.8 million Syrians in Turkey have made it the biggest host of refugees in the world, an expensive undertaking that the country is bearing mostly out of its own treasury.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since anti-government protests erupted in March 2011, precipitating a civil war pitting pro-regime forces, rebels and jihadist groups against each other.

UNHCR said a surge in new refugee arrivals in Turkey had pushed the total number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries to over 4,013,000 people.

Harper emphasized that countries involved had to figure out ways to keep the Syrian refugees productive. “When you have millions of children unable to go to school, unable to get the proper help they need… the risk is you run into a lost generation of people”, he said. “In reality, the figure is even higher as it does not include more than 270,000 asylum applications by Syrians in Europe, and thousands of others not resettled in regional neighbours”, the report said.

“Worsening conditions are driving growing numbers toward Europe and further afield”, Guterres said, adding, “but the overwhelming majority remain in the region”.

The United Nations says it appealed for $5.5bn in funding from donors to ensure it could continue to provide the humanitarian funds required but as on last month only a quarter of the money had arrived. Turkey is home to around 45 percent of the 4 million Syrian refugees in the region.

With no end in sight to Syria’s war, now in its fifth year, the crisis is intensifying and the number of refugees is rising.

“About 86 percent of the 630,000 in Jordan live below the poverty line of $3.2 per day, the UNHCR statement said, while more than half of the 1.173 million Syrians in Lebanon live in sub-standard shelters”. He said the lack of money is putting huge pressure on the refugees and local communities hosting them.