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Foreign Ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey issue joint statement on Syrian refugees

05 September 2013 08:16 (UTC +04:00)

“We strongly appeal to the international community to overcome existing differences and come together to stop the fighting. All actions that are creating refugee flows need to cease,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in an agreed statement with Foreign Ministers.

A ministerial-level meeting is scheduled to be held on 30 September as part of the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) annual Executive Committee gathering to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis.

The joint statement follows a half-day meeting chaired by Mr. Guterres with representatives of the four countries that host the majority of the 2 million refugees who have fled Syria since March 2011. As of the end August, the number of Syrians registered as refugees or pending registration was 110,000 in Egypt, 200,000 in Iraq, 520,000 in Jordan, some 720,000 in Lebanon and 464,000 in Turkey.