Syrians Now Comprise World's Largest Refugee Population, According to UN

Rio Rose Ribaya Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Displaced people, fleeing violence from the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate on Aug. 11, 2014. | REUTERS/Rodi Said

Syrians have become the largest refugee population with more than 3 million or about 23 percent of people escaping war in their home countries all over the world, the United Nations said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugee Antonio Gutierres said for the first time, Syrian nationals overtook Afghans, who were the largest refugee population for more than three decades.

The Syrian conflict that began with protests almost four years ago has protracted into civil war, killing at least 200,000 people and displacing half of the Syrian population since March 2011, Reuters reported.

"As long as the international community continues to fail to find political solutions to existing conflicts and to prevent new ones from starting, we will continue to have to deal with the dramatic humanitarian consequences," Gutierres said.

"The economic, social and human cost of caring for refugees and the internally displaced is being borne mostly by poor communities, those who are least able to afford it. Enhanced international solidarity is a must if we want to avoid the risk of more and more vulnerable people being left without proper support," he added.

As a result of the crisis in Syria, the Middle East and North Africa replaced Asia and the Pacific as the regions hosting the largest number of refugees, signaling a shift in the regional distribution of refugee populations.

The U.N. refugee agency also reported that an estimated 5.5 million people became newly uprooted during the first half of 2014 with 1.4 million of them seeking refuge abroad.

This caused a further increase in the number of people forcibly displaced across the globe with a total of 13 million refugees receiving help from UNCHR for the first six months of 2014 -- the highest since 1996.

UNCHR, which only provides help for internal displaced people or IDPS in countries where governments request its involvement, also reported that the total number of IDPs protected under their mandate reached a new high of 26 million.