The number of Syrians who have fled their country after six years of civil war has risen above 5 million, the UN's refugee agency says.

The UNHCR announced the milestone on March 30, a year after the international community pledged to "resettle and facilitate pathways for 500,000 refugees" to alleviate the burden on countries neighboring Syria.

But only half of those places have been allocated so far, a statement says.

The first three months of 2017 saw more than 250,000 additional Syrians registered as refugees, the UNHCR says, without providing an explanation for the surge.

Turkey continues to host the highest number of displaced Syrians -- nearly 3 million.

In addition to the 5 million men, women, and children who have fled the war in Syria, the UN agency estimates another 6.3 million people have been internally displaced.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters</s>More than 5 million Syrians have fled their country as it has been torn apart by civil war over the past six years, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.

The announcement came one year after a conference in Geneva where countries promised to help resettle 500,000 refugees. Since then, only half of those refugees have found places to call home.

“We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees,” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.

While the world seeks ways to help Syrians seeking asylum, the war in Syria rages on. Half the country’s population has been displaced over the last six years, and nearly 400,000 people have been killed, according to the Associated Press .

No specific incident has prompted this marker of 5 million refugees, UN refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch told the AP. Turkey has taken in the most Syrian refugees, according to the agency.

The United States previously said it would take in 64,000 refugees from Syria , Baloch told the AP, and those efforts are continuing while the country is involved in court battles over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.</s>UN report says Turkey now hosts nearly three million Syrians, with 47,000 more coming since February alone.

The number of refugees who have fled the war in Syria now exceeds five million with millions more displaced internally.

Syrians have poured across their borders since anti-government protests in 2011 spiralled into a full-blown conflict between rebels, government troops, and foreign backers.

"As the number of men, women and children fleeing six years of war in Syria passes the five million mark, the international community needs to do more to help them," the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Thursday.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Geneva, said the "enormity and colossal suffering" of the refugees is evident from the UNHCR report.

READ MORE: The harrowing evacuation of east Aleppo

The total number of Syrian refugees abroad stood at 4.6 million at the end of 2015 and rose to 4.85 million by the end of last year, according to the agency's data.

The first three months of 2017 saw more than 250,000 additional Syrians register as refugees bringing the total to 5.1 million, UNHCR said on its website, without providing an explanation for the apparent surge.

The agency estimated another 6.3 million people have been internally displaced.

Turkey continues to host the highest number of Syrians displaced by the conflict - nearly three million people. It saw an increase of 47,000 more refugees since February, Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, told AP news agency.

Lebanon has more than one million Syrian refugees, while Jordan has 657,000, with others spread across Iraq, Egypt and other North African countries.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, said the actual number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is much higher than the official figure, with more people streaming into the country in the last few weeks.

He said most of the new arrivals have not yet registered with the UN, and shortages of food and water is common.

War-torn Iraq also hosts 233,224 Syrian refugees in the Kurdish north.

Iraq itself has an estimated 3.5 million people internally displaced, according to Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from east of Mosul.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have also fled to Europe, but not all have been granted refugee status.

Syrians have also fled to Europe in large numbers, making 884,461 asylum claims between April 2011 and October 2016. Almost two-thirds of the claims were in Germany and Sweden.

Hundreds of thousands more live in Gulf countries that are not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, so they are not recorded as refugees.

A UN-led humanitarian appeal to help Syrian refugees and support host communities has received only six percent of the money needed this year - $298mn out of $4.6bn target.</s>The tally of refugees who have fled the war in Syria now exceeds five million, the United Nations said on day. “As the number of men, women and children fleeing six years of war in Syria passes the five million mark, the international community needs to do more to help them,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement.

The total of Syrian refugees abroad stood at 4.6 million at the end of 2015 and rose to 4.85 million by the end of last year, according to the agency’s data.

The first three months of 2017 saw more than 250,000 additional Syrians register as refugees, UNHCR said on its website, without providing an explanation for the apparent surge.

Turkey continues to host the highest number of Syrians displaced by the conflict — nearly three million. Lebanon has over a million Syrian refugees, while Jordan has 657,000, with others spread across Iraq, Egypt and other North African countries. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have also fled to Europe, but not all of them have been granted refugee status.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now</s>More than five million men, women and children have now fled the Syrian civil war but the world’s will to give refugees a safe home is waning, the United Nations has warned.

World leaders pledged to resettle 10 per cent of all Syrian refugees by 2018 at a meeting Geneva in March last year, but only half of the needed places have been made available.

Donald Trump has attempted to suspend what was the world’s largest resettlement programme and border closures and restrictions are growing in Europe as more asylum seekers die attempting to reach the continent than ever before.

A record of more than 5,000 migrants drowned, suffocated or froze to death in the Mediterranean in 2016 and almost 1,000 have already died this year.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the international community must do more to help those fleeing six years of brutal conflict in Syria.

“We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees,” he said.

“To meet this challenge, we not only need additional places, but also need to accelerate the implementation of existing pledges.”

Mr Grandi said 250,000 out of half a million places pledged exactly a year ago were available, warning that efforts needed to be dramatically “accelerated”.

He added that only the most vulnerable refugees were referred for resettlement by the UN, with the measure “giving refugees the opportunity to re-build their lives, but also enriching the communities that welcome them”.

UN member states committed to increasing efforts to find homes for refugees as part of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants in September, but few new programmes have emerged.

Meanwhile, people continue to flee Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and other war-torn countries where conflicts look unlikely to end any time soon.

Save the Children said the international community had “utterly failed” to end the crisis.

Misty Buswell, the charity's director of advocacy for Syria, said: “More than a thousand children a day have fled their country every day for the past six years, and an entire generation is now growing up as refugees, forced from their homes and facing an uncertain future.

“These are the children who will have to rebuild Syria once the war ends, and they urgently need our support.”

She warned that many refugee families were unable to work and living without access to healthcare and education, with 750,000 Syrian refugee children are out of school.

“Even after six years this crisis is still getting bigger every day, and these children need our help now more than ever before,” Ms Buswell said.

“Yet countries around the world are increasingly shutting their borders to children seeking refuge.”

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that almost 1.2 million people will need resettlement in 2017, among whom 40 per cent are Syrians amid the biggest global crisis since the Second World War.

The agency said no specific incident caused the number of Syrian refugees to pass the 5 million mark, compared to 4.8 million a year ago, as another 6.3 million people remain internally displaced inside the country.

David Cameron pledged that the UK would resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 but only 4,400 people had been granted protection by September.

The Government also committed to homing up to vulnerable children who had already reached Europe under the “Dubs amendment” but dropped the scheme after capping numbers at 350 in February.

It blamed local councils for failing to provide resettlement places, while defending the UK’s record providing £2.3bn for refugees in Syria and surrounding countries.

Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, said the US has pledged to make 64,000 places available for Syrians and that efforts would continue amid court battles over Mr Trump’s attempts to reduce the programme.

Turkey now hosts 2.97 million Syrians and the number is growing as enforcement of an agreement struck with the EU to reduce boat crossings continues.

The deal, which came into effect a year ago, has slowed crossings over the Aegean Sea but resulted in 62,000 asylum seekers being trapped in Greece, where a Syrian man was found hung this week.

Crossings over the central Mediterranean Sea have continued to rise as smugglers take advantage of lawlessness and conflict in Libya to detain migrants and launch them packed into flimsy dinghies.

The vast majority of asylum seekers now arriving in Europe are taken to Italy by rescue ships, but they have also crossed by land and sea to Spain, and a fishing boat carrying 91 Syrian refugees, including 42 children, landed in Cyprus on Wednesday.

More than 28,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe by sea this year – more than 23,000 to Italy and 4,000 to Greece.

Only 22 per cent of those currently arriving are Syrian, with 11 per cent from Afghanistan, 10 per cent from Nigeria and others from Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and sub-Saharan African nations.</s>The number of Syrians who have fled their country after six years of war has surpassed the five-million mark, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.
• Over 650 children were killed in Syria last year, UNICEF says
• Syrian children show symptoms of 'toxic stress' after 6 years of war, report says

The UN announced the milestone a year after participating countries at a Geneva conference pledged to "resettle and facilitate pathways for 500,000 refugees" from Syria — but that only half of those places have been allocated so far.

"We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. "To meet this challenge, we not only need additional places, but also need to accelerate the implementation of existing pledges."

Agency spokesman Babar Baloch said that no specific incident prompted the crossing of the symbolic milestone, and that one year ago, the figure was 4.8 million. The agency estimates another 6.3 million people have been internally displaced.

Turkey, which has taken in the most Syrians by far, saw an increase of 47,000 Syrian refugees since February — bringing its total to 2.97 million, Baloch said. Lebanon and Jordan have taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrians.

The United States has the world's largest resettlement program and has pledged to make 64,000 places available for Syrians, Baloch said. The Trump administration has sought to reduce the program, though Baloch said the agency's efforts to help resettle Syrians in the U.S. are continuing amid U.S. court battles over the issue.</s>GENEVA—The number of Syrians who have fled their country after six years of war has surpassed the 5 million mark, the UN refugee agency said Thursday.

UNHCR announced the milestone a year after participating countries at a Geneva conference pledged to “resettle and facilitate pathways for 500,000 refugees” from Syria — but that only half of those places have been allocated so far.

“We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “To meet this challenge, we not only need additional places, but also need to accelerate the implementation of existing pledges.”

HBO doc ‘Cries From Syria’ aims to revive collective sympathy over crisis</s>Uganda currently hosts more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees, 572,000 new arrivals who have continued to stream into the country in desperate need of safety and help since 8 July 2016. The Government and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have appealed to the international community for urgent and massive support for thousands of South Sudan refugees who continue to pour in the country, fleeing brutal conflict back at home, coupled with lack of food.

Start the conversation, or Read more at New Vision.</s>PESHAWAR - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has formally decided to cut cash grant from $400 to $200, being given to each returning Afghan refugee under the voluntary repatriation programme. The repatriation process will resume from April 3, sources told The Nation on Thursday.

Following a slash in donor agencies financial aid, the UNHCR had no option but to reduce individual cash grant for Afghan refugees who are willing to go back to Afghanistan, they informed.

The amount is given to them across the border, they said, adding that all is set to resume repatriation of Afghan refugees from April 3.

Confirming the cut in grant from $400 to $200, the UNHCR Associate Public Information Officer Duniya Aslam Khan said that at least 11,000 Afghan refugees, who are willing to go back to Afghanistan, have so far registered themselves at the repatriation centre at Chamkani near Peshawar.

In 2016, around 370,000 registered Afghan refugees had repatriated to Afghanistan from Pakistan, she informed.

The government of Pakistan has extended the deadline for Afghan refugees to go back to Afghanistan by December 31.

Islamabad has been giving extensions since long. According to the UNHCR, there are currently about 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. Moreover, there are more than one million unregistered Afghan refugees in the country.</s>The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt has passed 5 million for the first time in Syria's six-year conflict, data from the U.N. refugee agency showed on Thursday.

The number remained static at about 4.8 million through most of 2016, but has risen since the start of this year. Data collected by UNHCR and the government of Turkey put the latest total at 5,008,473, of which 488,531 were in camps.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the total number of refugees from Syria reaches over five million.