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UN warns of new Syria refugee flow into Europe

13 December 2017 02:34 (UTC +04:00)

The United Nations has warned that Europe should anticipate droves of Syrian refugees if aid programs in Syria’s neighboring countries and other places are not sustained, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that if enough support was not provided to around 5.3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, countries in Europe would have to await an exodus like the one that rocked the continent in 2015.

“We had the experience of 2015, we don’t want to repeat that,” said Amin Awad, the director of the UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa bureau, while briefing reporters on the details of the UN body’s $4.63-billion appeal for 2017.

Awad said only 53 percent of the UNHCR’s appeal for aid to Syrian refugees had been received, adding that an acute shortage of services like the one that affected Syrian refugees in 2015 could force them toward European borders.