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Syria refugee numbers ’surpass 200,000’

25 August 2012 09:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementieva â€“ APA. UNHCR â€“ the United Nations Refugee Agency has said that the number of refugees arising from the Syrian strife has exceeded its projected 200,000 people, APA reports quoting agencies.

Even as thousands continue to flee the country, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, government forces on Friday continued their assault on armed rebel positions across the country. The UN refugee agency said on Friday that the flow of refugees fleeing the fighting had jumped past 202,500.

"There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Syrian refugees in the region during August, we’re now at over 200,000 refugees in the region that’s over and above our planning figure for all 2012 of 185,000 refugees in the region," said Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the UN. Jordan’s government said that a record 2,324 Syrian refugees had crossed into that country on Thursday night, while Turkish authorities said more than 3,500 Syrians fleeing the violence had arrived in the country in the past 24 hours. The new refugees bring the number of Syrians now sheltering in Turkey to more than 78,000.