According to the UN High Commission for refugees, more than half of all Syrians have left their homes.
The United Nations has announced that the number of Syrian refugees has exceeded the three million mark; the highest number reached since the beginning of the popular uprisings began in March 2011.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Lebanon is home to the largest number of Syrian refugees, accommodating 1176971 Syrian refugees. Turkey follows behind, with 832508 refugees, and then Jordan, which is accommodating 613252 Syrian refugees. Following Jordan is Iraq, home to 215369 Syrian refugees, and then Egypt, which is accommodating 139090 Syrian refugees.
According to the commissioner, the rate of Syrians registering with the commission each month reached a record in 2014, with around 100,000 Syrians registering on a monthly basis.
The numbers announced by the Commissioner only includes refugees that registered with the commission, whereas SHRC estimates that around 2 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and across the world remain unregistered with the commission.
In addition, the numbers provided do not encompass the internally displaced refugees inside Syria, whom, according to the UN, exceed six million and a half refugees, making the Syrian crisis the largest humanitarian crisis of our era.However, even with this, the world has failed in providing support to these refugees and to the countries hosting them.
In a press release issued today, the UN Commissioner said that increasing numbers of families had appeared with great signs of shock on their faces. The family members were exhausted, scared, and their savings were depleted. Most had been fugitives for around a year or more, escaping from village to village before taking their final decision to leave the country. The commissioner said that these stories bore signs of concern, namely that, the flight out of Syria is now more difficult, with people having to pay bribes at armed checkpoints spread out across the borders, forcing the refugees crossing the desert to east Jordan to pay huge sums to smugglers (around $100 per person or more) in order to be transported to safety.