While in all likelihood the actual number of displaced persons is much higher, the documented number of Syrian refugees according to the UN has now reached 1 million. That’s about 5% of Syria’s total populations.
“There are men left, but the families have fled in very large numbers in all of Daraa,” one refugee said. “You can now count the people left on your fingers. Syria is emptying.”
Roughly half of those are struggling to get by in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. A local administration office in Lebanon said it was running out of makeshift homes and heating fuel for refugees. The number of people fleeing across the border has significantly increased within the past few months. An average of about 1,400 refugees are crossing the border each day.
“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,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres said.
“We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched,” he said. “This tragedy has to be stopped.”
