BEIRUT – The number of Syrians who have fled their homeland during the almost two years of violence has officially exceeded 1 million, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The milestone had long been anticipated as the flight of refugees has continued inexorably, straining the resources of neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Inside Syria, the violence is said to have displaced an additional 2 million-plus people from their homes.
Aid groups and international observers have been sounding alarms for months about what they call a humanitarian catastrophe, warnings that were repeated on Wednesday once the 1 million mark had been reached. In fact, officials say many more than 1 million people have fled Syria; the official figures only include those who have formally registered with the United Nations as refugees or are in the process of registering.
Many have escaped Syria traumatized from the war, having lost relatives in the violence, and without possessions beyond the clothes on their backs. About half of the refugees are children, most younger than 11, the United Nations said. Many find shelter in formal refugee camps close to Syria's borders, but most have settled in communities, struggling to find work and pay the rent.
"With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling toward full-scale disaster," the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Gutierres, said in a statement. "We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched. This tragedy has to be stopped."
los angeles times
