Islamabad, Mar. 6 (ANI): The number of Syrians who have fled the war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has now reached the one million mark, the United Nations' refugee agency has said.
In a statement released in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said that the figure is based on reports from his agency's field offices in neighbouring countries that have provided refuge to Syrians escaping the civil war.
According to Dawn News, he said that 'with a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster.
Syria's uprising that began in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule has killed more than 70,000 people the United Nations estimated.
The relentless violence has also devastated many cities and forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge abroad.
Guterres said the number of refugees has swelled dramatically this year, with most Syrians come to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
He said that around half of refugees are children with majority being under the age of 11.
The UN in December estimated that 1.1 million Syrian refugees would arrive in neighboring countries by the end of June this year. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
