Officially the largest displacement crisis of all time, Syrians are fleeing for their lives taking refuge in bordering countries, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Bordering the country, Lebanon has received the largest proportion of refugees, last recorded at 716,000, however due to it’s size and economy, it is struggling to cope and unable to give the support that the refugees are in such need of right now.
The figures were released prior to a meeting with US politicians, in an attempt to gather support for intervention. It is understood that President Barack Obama is considering extensive action to try and alleviate the current situation. In a statement released by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), it was announced that ‘Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their back‘. Over a half of those that have been made to leave Syria are children, with an estimated three quarters being under the age of 11.
Statistics have shown that since the beginning of the crisis, and the flee across the borders to Lebanon in turn, there is now around 1 Syrian refugee to every 6 Lebanese citizen. It had taken a couple of years to see a rise in the number of Syrian refugees to a million, and only the past 6 months to boost this number to 2 million making it the largest and worst refugee crisis since 1994 genocide in Rwanda, nearly 20 years ago.
The FCO has arrived against any travel to Syria. For more information, please visit gov.uk
Written by Sofia Kluge on Google+
