A line of Syrian refugee women, some carrying children, cross into Jordan from southern Syria. The outflow this year has been staggering. © UNHCR/N.Daoud 
 
 GENEVA, March 6 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency, citing data received from UNHCR's offices in the Syria region, on Wednesday announced that the number of Syrians either registered as refugees or being assisted as such has reached the 1 million mark. 
 
 "With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. "We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched. This tragedy has to be stopped." 
 
 The number of Syrian refugees fleeing their country has increased dramatically since the beginning of the year. More than 400,000 people have become refugees since January 1, 2013. They arrive traumatized, without possessions and having lost members of their families. Around half of the refugees are children, the majority under the age of eleven. Most have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Increasingly, Syrians are also fleeing to North Africa and Europe. 
 
 "This number translates into 1 million people who are dependent on the generosity of host countries, the response of humanitarian agencies and the financial support of governments and individuals," said Guterres. 
 
 The High Commissioner noted that the impact of this large number of refugees arriving in neighbouring countries is severe. Lebanon's population has increased by as much as 10 per cent. Jordan's energy, water, health and education services are being strained to the limit. Turkey has spent over US$600 million setting up 17 refugee camps, with more under construction. Iraq, juggling its own crisis with more than 1 million Iraqis internally displaced, has received more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in the past year. 
 
 "These countries should not only be recognized for their unstinting commitment to keeping their borders open for Syrian refugees, they should be massively supported as well," said Guterres. 
 
 Bushra, the 1 millionth Syrian refugee, in Tripoli, Lebanon, with her children. © UNHCR/E.Byun 
 
 UNHCR named Bushra, a 19-year-old mother of two, as the symbolic 1 millionth refugee. She was registered in the coastal city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Wednesday. She has been living in a dilapidated two-room building in a Tripoli slum since crossing the border just over two weeks ago. 
 
 When UNHCR visited her earlier this week, she was holding her son Sleiman in the corner where they sleep at night. Her daughter Hanin, aged three, huddled close to her mother in the room they share with 12 other refugees. 
 
 Her flight to Lebanon was a desperate last measure. She moved with her children from the city of Homs, where she lived, and sought safety in several villages to avoid tanks and shelling and gangs of men whom she feared would rape or kill her and her little ones. But soon, she said, the shooting would begin, the shelling would rain down and it would be time to leave. 
 
 Before the conflict, she lived with her husband of five years and his family. He was a truck driver and was able to provide for the family. Now he is missing. "We need help," Bushra said. "We hope this will end so we can go back to our house. We need to feel peace and stability. We cannot ask for anything more." 
 
 In December, the UN's Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees estimated that 1.1 million Syrian refugees would arrive in neighbouring countries by the end of June 2013. UNHCR is in the process of adjusting this plan, in light of the new figures. Currently, the plan is only about 25 per cent funded. 
 
 Without a political solution to the conflict, Guterres said, "at a minimum, humanitarian actors should receive the funds needed to save lives and ease suffering." 
 
 The Syria crisis will be two years old next week. High Commissioner Guterres will be travelling to the region later this week to visit UNHCR operations in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. 
 
 5134a41f9 ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption One Syrian refugee who said she was 105 years old told the BBC's Fergal Keane she "just wanted to die" 
 
 The number of Syrian refugees who have fled the conflict has reached a million, the UN has said. 
 
 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of people seeking haven in neighbouring countries had jumped since the beginning of the year. 
 
 Half of the refugees were children, the UN said, most of them under 11 and often traumatised by their experiences. 
 
 The largest numbers of refugees were seeking shelter in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. 
 
 The figure includes registered refugees and newer arrivals awaiting registration. 
 
 "Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement, warning that the international humanitarian response capacity was "dangerously stretched". 
 
 "This tragedy has to be stopped," he added, warning that the influx of people had also stretched the resources of Syria's neighbours. 
 
 The millionth refugee recorded by UNHCR was a 19-year-old mother of two called Bushra. 
 
 "Our situation is so bad, everything is so expensive, we can't find any work... The situation is so bad, I live with 20 other people in one room," Bushra told reporters in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. 
 
 'Tremendous burden' 
 
 Many of those who have fled conflict now live in difficult conditions, with poor sanitation and insufficient resources to cope with the harsh winters. 
 
 At the scene Some 2,000 refugees crossed into Jordan from Syria in the past 24 hours. Many were brought to the large tent for new arrivals just inside the Zaatari camp. They could be seen lying sprawled, exhausted and dishevelled, on mats and blankets laid on the floor. "We came because of the shelling and air strikes. They destroyed our houses, they left nothing for us," said an old woman from Homs. "It took us nearly five days to get here walking through fields." A young mother told us how Syrian forces had shot at them as they tried to leave. "We were so afraid we had an accident on the road. We thought we were going to die," she said. By late afternoon, the refugees were registered by the UNHCR and had moved to their own basic shelters. But officials here say the increasing flow of refugees threatens to overwhelm them. "The international community is failing to find a political solution inside Syria and so people are continuing to flee," says Andrew Harper, head of UNHCR in Jordan. "We'll probably have another 100,000 people arrive in the next four or five weeks." 
 
 In Lebanon, for example, the influx of almost a third of a million refugees since last February has swollen the country's population by 10%. 
 
 Turkey, providing a temporary home for some 184,000 refugees, has spent more than $600m (459m euros; £396m) setting up 17 refugee camps, and is building new ones to meet the increasing need, the UN said. 
 
 "These countries should not only be recognised for their unstinting commitment to keeping their borders open for Syrian refugees, they should be massively supported as well," Mr Guterres said. 
 
 On Tuesday, Jordan's King Abdullah called on world nations to help his country, Turkey and Lebanon to shoulder "the tremendous burden" of caring for the huge influx of people. 
 
 'Catastrophic proportions' 
 
 UK charity Oxfam says that only 20% of $1.5bn promised by international donors in January has arrived, "leaving agencies struggling to respond to the urgent needs of refugees". 
 
 The rush of refugees has surprised even UN experts, who had originally estimated that the one million figure would not be reached until the end of June 2013. 
 
 In effect, more than 400,000 have became refugees since 1 January 2013. 
 
 The UN's emergency response plan for Syrian refugees, Oxfam said, currently lacked 75% of the funding required. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Nik Gowing reports as Bushra, 19, registers as the millionth refugee 
 
 Jordan's Petra news agency said that a total of 2,257 Syrian refugees had crossed into the country on Tuesday alone. 
 
 Some 110,000 of those who have sought shelter in Jordan are living in the desert camp of Zaatari, near its northern border with Syria. 
 
 The conflict in Syria began almost two years ago with demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 The protests quickly turned violent as opponents of Mr Assad took up arms to try to resist a brutal crackdown by the authorities. 
 
 The conflict has left more than 70,000 people dead and two million internally displaced, of a pre-conflict population of 20.7 million. 
 
 Also on Wednesday, the Commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Gen Selim Idriss, called for the lifting of the EU arms embargo against Syria, saying it is having a much more negative effect on the opposition than on the Assad regime. 
 
 Gen Idriss told the BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels that opposition forces desperately needed weapons and ammunition, and that the war would be longer and bloodier if the embargo remained in place. 
 
 UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday that the UK was going to provide armoured vehicles and body armour to Syrian opposition forces in a bid to end a crisis that had reached what he called "catastrophic proportions". 
 
 His announcement in the House of Commons stopped short of arming the rebels, but he told the BBC on Sunday that the UK would not rule out doing so in future. 
 
 In a separate development, Arab League foreign ministers invited the Syrian main opposition to take the country's seat at the league. 
 
 The ministers asked the Syrian National Coalition to send its representative to the group's meeting in Doha later this month. 
 
 The 22-member league suspended Syria's membership in 2011.
– A million people have now fled Syria to avoid the war raging there—and half of them are children, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported today. "Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," commissioner António Guterres said. "We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched." The defections have accelerated dramatically this year, with more than 400,000 fleeing since January. The UN hadn't expected to pass the 1 million mark for three more months, the BBC reports. The influx has put a real strain on neighboring countries; Lebanon, for instance, has seen its population swell as much as 10%, while Turkey has spent $600 million on refugee camps. Jordan and Iraq have also been sharing the load. Jordan's king yesterday urged other countries to help carry "the tremendous burden," and Guterres echoed that call. "These countries should not only be recognized for their unstinting commitment to keeping their borders open for Syrian refugees," he said, "they should be massively supported."