The United Nations agency which protects and provides for refugees on Tuesday announced that the number of refugees fleeing the war in Syria has passed two million individuals, putting a heavy strain on the agency’s resources to cope with its humanitarian assistance program.
In addition, the UNHCR also reported that there are approximately another 4.25 million “displaced inside Syria.”
Approximately, 1.8 million refugees have left Syria in the past year alone, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) press release stated. In addition, the agency presently only has 47% of the funding needed to provide basic services for the refugees.
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie stated, “The world risks being dangerously complacent about the Syrian humanitarian disaster. The tide of human suffering unleashed by the conflict has catastrophic implications. If the situation continues to deteriorate at this rate, the number of refugees will only grow, and some neighboring countries could be brought to the point of collapse.”
She added that while the international community is “tragically disunited on how to end the Syria conflict,” there should not be disparity on the need to provide aid to the victims of the conflict.
According to another UNHCR page detailing the Syrian refugee plight, as of Monday Syrian refugees have fled to the neighboring and nearby countries of Turkey (463,885), Jordan (519,676), Egypt (111,101), Iraq (171,984) and Lebanon (720,003).
Over half of the refugees are under the age of 18.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres remarked of the new milestone, “Syria has become the great tragedy of this century; a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.
“The only solace is the humanity shown by the neighboring countries in welcoming and saving the lives of so many refugees,” he added.
Last week the United Kingdom Parliament struck down UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s request for military intervention in Syria in response to Syria’s alleged chemical weapon attack on its own people.
Meanwhile, the United States is preparing a possible attack on Syrian positions in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians in Syria. President Obama has called on Congress for authorization for the use of military force, though he must also convince a war-weary America of the necessity and the objectives of such an attack.
