The scale of the Syrian refugee crisis dwarfs all others in recent history. Thirteen million people have been displaced by the Syrian war — more than the entire population of Switzerland — with millions now scattered across the Middle East and Europe. In all, about half of Syria’s pre-war population has been displaced.
Elizabeth Ferris recently published the book Consequences of Chaos: Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect with Kemal Kirisci, which looks at the impact the crises are having on the region.
FERRIS: Turkey is currently the largest refugee hosting country in the world, with about three and a half million registered refugees in the country, plus undoubtedly, many more who aren’t registered. They’re distributed along the Turkish-Syrian border, but also in Istanbul and throughout the country.
Lebanon has about 1.2 million Syrian refugees. But in terms of the number of refugees per capita, Lebanon has experienced the greatest impact. About one in four or one in five residents in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. So, the impact in Lebanon has been dramatic in terms of the scale of dealing with over a million refugees who have been there for almost a decade now.
And then there’s Jordan. Jordan has officially registered numbers of 650,000 Syrian refugees, but the Jordanian government estimates that the total number is probably twice that.
A large number of Syrians went to the EU countries in 2015 and 2016, but since the EU-Turkey deal of 2016, these numbers have fallen significantly. Under the agreement, the EU paid Turkey to prevent people from leaving Turkey to seek asylum in Greece and elsewhere in Europe. Within the EU, Greece is probably the country most affected with Syrian refugees living in the country in camps of appalling condition.
Read The Entire Interview Here