More than 5 million Syrians are refugees
UN says a quarter of the population has been forced to flee their war-torn country with a similar number internally displaced
BEIRUT // More than five million Syrians – a quarter of the war-torn country’s population – are now refugees, the UN said yesterday.
And a similar number of people have been forced to flee their homes but remain in the country since the conflict began in March 2011, while more than 320,000 have been killed. “As the number of men, women and children fleeing six years of war in Syria passes the five million mark, the international community needs to do more to help them,” the UN refugee agency said.
Aid organisations have regularly sounded the alarm, appealing for more funds and international action to end the war.
“It’s clear the international community has completely failed to end the conflict in Syria,” said Save the Children spokesman Alun McDonald.
“The situation inside the country is still not remotely safe for people to go home. We see more people uprooted every day.”
Mr McDonald said much of the international community was also failing refugees, increasingly closing their borders.
Most Syrian refugees are hosted regionally, by neighbours Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, with more in Iraq and Egypt.
Hundreds of thousands have fled to Europe, often risking exploitation by smugglers and death on arduous journeys by land and sea. Smaller numbers have been resettled officially in Europe, Canada and America, although US president Donald Trump has sought to temporarily halt all Syrian refugee entries.
In a joint statement with Syr- ian organisations, charity Oxfam yesterday urged more support for host countries.
“Oxfam calls on rich countries to show their support for Syria’s neighbours who have welcomed these refugees, and to resettle at least the most vulnerable 10 per cent of Syrian refugees by the end of 2017,” said Winnie Byanyima, its international executive director. Oxfam spokeswoman Joelle Bassoul said: “It’s a protracted crisis and the funding is not catching up with the needs. With fewer resources we now have to help more people.” Aid groups and the UN have also regularly warned about the long-term impact of the crisis, particularly on children.
“A million Syrian refugee children are out of school and missing out on education, and they are the ones who will have to contribute to rebuilding Syria for the next generation,” Mr McDonald said.
Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees with more than 2.9 million registered there, the UN said.
About 657,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the UN in Jordan, but the government says the true figure is 1.3 million.
The situation is more complicated in Lebanon where the government refused to allow formal camps to be set up.
The UN says about a million Syrians are in the country, although the government says the figure is higher, with many living in poor conditions. Lebanon has four million citizens and was already struggling with limited resources and unemployment.