UNHCR: Syrian Refugees Cross Four Million Mark

84bae44205c445f487322b04f3d7f64f_18

The number of people fleeing the civil war in Syria has now passed four million, according to the UN refugee agency. An overwhelming majority of the refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, with Turkey hosting nearly two million alone, UNHCR said in a report released on Thursday.  Aljazeera has more:

The conflict in Syria has led to what UNHCR described as the world’s single largest refugee crisis in almost a quarter of a century under the agency’s mandate.

UNHCR said a surge in new refugee arrivals in Turkey had pushed the total number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries to over 4,013,000 people. An additional 7.6 million people are displaced inside Syria, the report said.

The more than 1.8 million Syrians in Turkey have made the country the biggest host of refugees in the world. Nearly 249,726 refugees have been sheltered in Iraq, while Jordan hosts 629,128 and Egypt and Lebanon are home to 132,375 and 1,172,753 respectively. The report does not include 270,000 asylum applications by Syrians in Europe, and the thousands of others resettled from the region elsewhere.