Number of Syrian refugees reaches one million: UN
Iran Press TV
Wed Mar 6, 2013 8:41AM GMT
The United Nations has warned that Syria was “spiraling towards full-scale disaster,” stating that the number of refugees who have fled the violence in the Arab country has reached one million.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in a statement on Wednesday that the figure was based on reports received from its offices in Syria’s neighboring countries that host Syrians escaping the country’s two-year-long unrest.
Guterres said that millions of people have also been internally displaced, while thousands of people continue crossing borders each day.
He stated that the number of the Syrian refugees has increased since the beginning of the year, with the majority of them moving to Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government 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.
SAB/PKH/HJL
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