UN: Syrian refugee numbers pass ‘five million’ mark in region

The number of people fleeing Syria’s war into neighboring states and Egypt has passed the 5-million mark, data from the U.N. refugee agency showed.

The number of people fleeing Syria’s war into neighboring states and Egypt has passed the 5-million mark, data from the U.N. refugee agency showed.

Syrians have poured across their borders into Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq since in 2011 spiraled into a full-blown conflict between takfiri militants, and government troops.

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 or Sweden.