UNHCR concerned about Syrian refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the agency to provide health services to more than 1.4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries.

The UNHCR said in a statement on Friday that the number of Syrian refugees has passed 1,401,435 and that “this corresponds to 30 percent more than the total envisaged under the current Regional Refugee Response Plan by end June 2013.”

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky also told reporters in New York that the refugees suffer from problems in “having access to quality healthcare, particularly for people living outside of camps.”

“The increasing numbers of people needing medical help are straining existing health services in the affected countries where they live,” he said.

The Syrian refugees have been sheltered in neighboring states including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government security forces and army personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the militants.

Several international human rights organizations have accused the militants operating in Syria of committing war crimes.