Syrian refugees reached 700 000
2013-01-29 16:26
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Syria
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Geneva - More than 700 000 Syrian refugees have
registered or are awaiting registration in neighbouring countries as the
conflict in their war-torn nation spirals further out of control, the UN's
refugee agency said on Tuesday.
"We've had a huge push in the last few weeks. The
needs are enormous," UNHCR spokesperson Sybella Wilkes told AFP, adding
that a colleague on the ground had complained that "we cannot get to
everyone fast enough”.
She pointed out that the number of Syrians registered as
refugees or awaiting processing in the surrounding countries had reached 703 314
late on Monday.
Of that number, she said, more than 581 000 were
registered, and aid workers were doing their best to scale up the registration
process "to clear the backlog”.
Wilkes pointed out that at this time last year the UN
agency was registering only a few hundred Syrian refugees each month in
Lebanon.
"Now, the aim is to register 45 000 a month,"
she said, adding that the current average stands at around 32 000.
In Jordan, which has seen a massive influx in recent
weeks, "the plan is for the month of February alone to try to register 50 000
people," Wilkes said.
About four million Syrians rely on international
assistance to cope with the fallout from the 22-month old conflict in which the
UN estimates more than 60 000 people have died.
- SAPA
