GENEVA
Dan McNorton, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that the number of Syrians who sought refuge in neighbouring countries were over 1.5 million according to official figures.
McNorton gave a briefing to journalists at the UN Geneva Center.
Stating that the gap between the needs of Syrians and current stocks was enlarging day by day, McNorton said that UNHCR registered 1 million refugees as of January 1, and a significant number of Syrians refrained from registering.
He stated that number of refugees increased sharply over the last four months, meaning that the situation was worsening in regions of conflict.
Aid of UNHCR was delivered to 860,000 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the year and over 4,200 refugees applied to the UNHCR in Jordan every day, he noted.
McNorton stated that there were 473,587 refugees in Jordan, 470,457 in Lebanon, 347,157 in Turkey, 147,464 in Iraq, 66,922 in Egypt, 10,052 in other northern African countries and in total 1,515,639 refugees as of May 15, 2013.
