Syria Refugee Crisis Worsens as Four Million Flee Overseas

The UNHCR says it expect the figure of refugees in neighbouring countries to reach around 4.27m by the end of this year.

Geneva, July 9 (IANS): The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday said over four million Syrians have so far fled the war and persecution in their country and have become refugees in neighbouring countries, making the Syrian conflict the worst crisis globally for nearly a quarter of a century. 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.

He also expressed his disappointment in the way other countries responded to this refugee crisis – instead of lending a helping hand and offering these refugees the support they deserve, they left them in dire conditions to sink even deeper in sheer poverty.

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.

“New arrivals in Turkey and updated data from the Turkish authorities on refugees already in that country have taken the total number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries to more than 4,013,000 people”, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement.

“Worsening conditions are driving growing numbers toward Europe and further afield”, Guterres said, adding, “but the overwhelming majority remain in the region”. Another 7.6 million people are internally displaced.

For this year as a whole, $5.5 billion is needed in worldwide humanitarian and development aid, the UNHCR estimated. “This means refugees face tough new cuts in food aid, and struggle to afford lifesaving health services or send their children to school”, the refugee agency warned. Turkey is home to around 45 percent of the 4 million Syrian refugees in the region.

The Syrian conflict has entered in its fifth year but with little hope in sight of a possible solution and the number of people fleeing the war zone is rising.

Many migrants are employing increasingly desperate tactics to get to Western Europe where they will be able to claim asylum.