Refugees of the Syrian Civil War, widely referred as the Syrian refugees, are Syrian nationals, who have fled Syria with the escalation of the Syrian Civil War. To escape the violence, roughly two and a half million Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, while thousands also ended up in more distant countries of the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf and North Africa.
In August 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that the number of registered Syrian refugees had reached over 200,000, exceeding the UNHCR estimate of 185,000 for the entire year. Also according to the United Nations, 6 million people inside Syrian needed help and about 4 million Syrians were internally displaced because of the Syrian Civil War.
By early 2013, the UNHCR announced that the number of refugees had topped 1 million, and by March 2013 had risen to 1,204,707 people. A spokeswoman for UNHCR, Sybilla Wilkes, also reported that the rate of flight from Syria was increasing. "In March an average of 10,000 people crossing per day. In February it was 8,000. In January it was 5,000. The numbers keep going up and up." In September 2013, the number of Syrian refugees topped 2 million. On December 2013, UN announced an aid appeal for US$6.5 billion in order to assist the Syrian population - some US$2.3 billion are destined for civilians inside Syria, while US$4.2 billion would go to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries. This was the all-time high humanitarian appeal in UN history.
Associated press, in their report, dated 29 August, stated the following facts:
One of every eight Syrian has fled, mostly to Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey.
6.5 million others have been displaced within Syria.
35,000 awaiting registration as refugees, hundreds of thousands who are not registered.
Nearly half of all Syrians have now been displaced.
Thousands of Syrian citizens fled across the border to Lebanon and Turkey. By early July 2011, 15,000 Syrian citizens had taken shelter in tent cities, set up in the Yayladağı
districts of Hatay Province
, near Turkey's border with Syria. By the end of the month, 5,000 of the refugees had returned to Syria. By late June 2011, The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had reached around 10,000 people. By mid July 2011, the first Syrian refugees found sanctuary in Jordan, with numbers reaching 1,500 by December.
In the April 2012 offensive by the Syrian Army, which preceded the expected ceasefire on 10 April of the Kofi Annan peace plan, the flow of refugees into Turkey reached a peak, with as many as 2,300 refugees entering on 4 April and 2,800 refugees entering on 5 April. The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey reached 23,835 by 6 April. In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded Assad keep his promise to cease military operations, while demanding action by the international community and the UN if more refugees came.
By 3 May, the number of Syrians, crossing the Turkish border was estimated at 300 people. Turkish President, Abdullah Gül
, said that Turkey had prepared for "a worst-case scenario", in an apparent reference to a possible influx of large numbers of refugees from Syria. He also referred to the fact that Turkey had already set up a small camp in southern Hatay Province
for 263 Syrians who had fled their country on 29 April .
By mid May, some 700 of Tel Kalakh residents had fled across the border, to the northern Lebanese village of Mkaybleh. According to Sheikh Abdullah, a prominent religious figure in the village of Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon, by mid May the village had received more than 1,350 refugees from Syria over a period of 10 days, most of them women and children. More were expected to arrive.
On 14 May, Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the refugee flow into Lebanon had been fairly small at around 1,000 people. She also said the number of Syrians who had crossed the border into Turkey was also small at about 250.
With the siege of Jisr al-Shu