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 The record figure is one million refugees more than a year ago,
while a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria, meaning that
"almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their
homes and flee for their lives", it said.
"The Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of
our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and
the countries hosting them," Antonio Guterres, U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.
The vast majority remain in neighboring countries, with the highest
concentrations in Lebanon (1.14 million), Turkey (815,000) and
Jordan (608,000), the UNHCR said. Some 215,000 refugees are in Iraq
with the rest in Egypt and other countries.
In addition, the host governments estimate that hundreds of
thousands more Syrians have sought sanctuary in their countries
without formally registering, the agency said.
Increasing numbers of families arrive in a shocking state,
exhausted, scared and with their savings depleted, it said. "Most
have been on the run for a year or more, fleeing from village to
village before taking the final decision to leave."
"There are worrying signs too that the journey out of Syria is
becoming tougher, with many people forced to pay bribes at armed
checkpoints proliferating along the borders. Refugees crossing the
desert into eastern Jordan are being forced to pay smugglers hefty
sums (ranging from $100 per person or more) to take them to safety,"
it added.
DESPERATE SITUATION
Syrians now constitute the world's largest refugee population under
the care of the UNHCR, second only in number to refugees in the
decades-old Palestinian crisis that falls under the mandate of a
separate U.N. agency UNRWA, it said.
A recent upsurge in fighting appears to be worsening an already
desperate situation, the statement said.
More than 191,000 people were killed in the first three years of
Syria's civil war, a U.N. report said last week in what
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called a "wholly
avoidable human catastrophe".
In another report issued on Wednesday, U.N. human rights
investigators accused Islamic State insurgents of committing war
crimes including amputations and public executions in northern
Syria, sometimes in the presence of children.
The government of President Bashar al-Assad is dropping deadly
barrel bombs on civilian areas and Damascus is believed to have used
chlorine gas in combating its enemies, they said.
The United States is pushing to build an international campaign
against Islamic State jihadist fighters in Iraq and Syria, including
partners for potential joint military action, Obama administration
officials said on Thursday.
The UNHCR report said some areas of Syria were emptying out as the
frontlines in the conflict shifted. "Recent arrivals to Jordan, for
example, are running from attacks in the areas of al-Raqqa and
Aleppo," the UNHCR said, referring to northern areas of Syria.
The agency voiced deep concern at the fate of several hundred
Syrians trapped inside Al Obaidy refugee camp in Al Qa'im, Iraq,
after U.N. agencies and foreign aid workers were forced to abandon
their offices and warehouses due to violence.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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