med the decision, he also warned it could create problems. "The fact that Sweden is the first country to open its arms is both positive and negative," he told the TT news agency, explaining that it may be a boon for the growing people-smuggling market.
In September, the countries in South America (mainly Argentina and Brazil) decided to offer refuge to thousands of displaced Syrians. More than three hundred Syrian refugee families have already arrived in Argentina. Moreover, Brazil is the first country in the Americas region to offer humanitarian visas to Syrian refugees. Brazil's embassies in (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq) countries neighbouring Syria will be responsible for issuing travel visas for people wanting to go there. Claims for asylum will need to be presented on arrival in Brazil. These special humanitarian visas will also be provided to family members living in countries neighbouring Syria.
By the end of August 2014, the UN estimated 6.5 million people had been displaced in Syria, while more than 3 million refugees had fled to countries such as Lebanon (1.14 million), Jordan (608,000) and Turkey (815,000). Another 35,000 refugees were awaiting registration, while estimates of several hundred thousand more were not included in official figures as they were unregistered. "The Syria crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres
said at the time.
Turkey's Killis camp was featured in a Feb. 13 article in the New York Times titled How to Build a Perfect Refugee Camp. It is run by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, and staffed by Turkish government employees, rather than by NGOs. It is hoped that the 14,000 refugees benefiting from the clean, well organized facility will eventually "go home and become grand ambassadors of Turkey."
The UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) reported in 2014 that the total number of refugees worldwide exceeded 50 million for the first time since World War II. The recent increases were largely due to the Syrian civil war.In September the Muslim Scholars Committee condemned human rights abuses after military raids on Syrian refugee camps in Arsal. The statement said 'the collective punishment of Syrian refugees cannot be justified,” and called for a 'transparent and impartial investigation of the violations, from the burning of camps to the torturing of detainees in Arsal'. The Army had been conducting wide raids on Syrian refugee sites in Arsal. The Lebanese army said it opened fire on 3 individuals on a motorcycle who attempted to burn another nearby tented settlement.
As of October 2014, Uruguay is receiving an immigration flow of Syrian refugees.
22px International Organization for Migration – The International Organization for Migration provided water filters, rechargeable lights, stoves, blankets and pillows in Lebanon and Iraq in June 2012, as well as winterization kits to Syrians in Iraq throughout the winter 2012–2013.
– In March 2012, the Kurdistan Regional Government announced plans to construct a second refugee camp for Syrian nationals fleeing the violence in their country, as Moqebleh refugee camp at Qamishli, which was established following the 2004 Al-Qamishli riots, became overcrowded with refugees of the Syrian Civil War. According to the World Food Programme, in the span of one week in August 2013, 37,000 Syrians fled to Iraq, 15,000 of them arriving at the Kawrgosk camp in Kurdish Northern Iraq.
– Israelis from humanitarian groups are in Jordan to assist Syrian refugees fleeing their country's civil war. Ayoob Kara, Israel's deputy minister for the development of the Negev and Galilee, said that Israelis are assisting children and infants who have been injured in the Syrian military's ongoing violent crackdown throughout Syria. He said Israeli volunteer groups had been providing humanitarian aid in Turkey and Jordan. Syrians injured in clashes with the Syrian army have been 