Syrian refugees to exceed 4mn by end of 2014: UN

The United Nations has warned that the number of Syrian refugees, who have fled the crisis in the country, will almost double over the next year to top four million.

“We are addressing the needs of a potential number of 4.1 million refugees in the end of 2014,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said at a meeting of donor countries in the Swiss city of Geneva, adding, “There is a tragedy in the plight of Syrian refugees.”

He noted that more than nine million others are also expected to be in need of help inside the Arab country by the end of 2014, with millions displaced from their homes.

During the meeting of donor countries, the UN also appealed for USD 6.5 billion for Syria and its neighbors in 2014.

“The increasing number of internally-displaced people and refugees is generating greater needs across all sectors and straining the capacities of neighboring countries, with profound regional consequences,” the appeal said of Syria.
The latest estimate indicates that some 4.1 million Syrians would be living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt by the end of 2014. Currently, an estimated 2.4 million refugees from Syria are residing in neighboring countries.

The UNHCR also said on Monday that one in five residents of Lebanon is a refugee from Syria, noting that there are over 842,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are living in “1,588 locations.” However, Lebanese officials believe that the actual figure could be even higher.

The UN refugee agency added that an additional 52,000 Palestinians who were living in Syria have also fled to Lebanon.

Authorities in Lebanese have not established official camps for refugees from Syria and many of them are living in hundreds of unofficial tent settlements across the country.

According to the UNHCR, 30 percent of the refugees in Lebanon “live in substandard shelters” and over 70 percent are “in need of continued humanitarian assistance.”

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed due to the violence in Syria.