Countries neighbouring conflict host vast majority of world's refugees - report

Tuesday 04-10-2016 05:57 PM

Syrian women and children. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

CAIRO, Oct 4 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt is one of five countries that host most of the Syrian refugees who have fled their country in the last five years, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. 

The other countries are Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 

Egypt, one of several refugee-hosting countries, has been struggling economically amid rising inflation and unemployment as well as the weakening of its national currency.

A new report by Amnesty International said that 10 countries that account for less than 2.5 percent of the world's GDP host 56 percent of the world's 21 million refugees.

The 10 countries hosting the most refugees include Turkey, Jordan, and Ethiopia.

This happens to be the case at a time when many of the world's wealthiest nations host the fewest refugees, "both in absolute numbers and relative to their size and wealth," the report said.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had called upon the G-20 member states early September to provide additional assistance for refugee-hosting countries amid rising conflicts and dire economic conditions in the Middle East.

Amnesty described the situation as "inherently unfair and undermines the human rights of refugees."

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in September 2015 that around 5 million refugees from Arab and African countries reside in Egypt. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), however, estimated by the end of 2015 that the total number of registered refugees in Egypt hover around 250,000, with a bit less than half of them fleeing from war-torn Syria.

However, thousands of Syrians remain unregistered.

"The deadly conditions in Syria have led almost 5 million people, half of whom are children, to seek refuge outside the country," the report stated. "The majority of these refugees are being hosted in the region, in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, while over 2.7 million are in Turkey."

The protracted conflict in Syria since 2011 has inflicted grave harm on its citizens, killing thousands and displacing millions.

The countries neighbouring Syria have taken massive responsibility for the refugee crisis, while other countries have failed to show enough support, according to the report.   

According to UNHCR data, as of July 2016 states had pledged fewer than 250,000 resettlement places or other forms of entry for Syrians.

The Syrian refugee population in Egypt decreased by 15 percent in 2015, from 138,400 to 117,600 people, according to UNHCR. 

The agency attributed difficult socioeconomic conditions and the "loss of hope" to the continued trend of refugees leaving the country by sea, land or air.  

"An increasing number of asylum-seekers and refugees were arrested and detained for irregular departure from Egypt," UNHCR said.

Egyptian authorities have announced thwarting several illegal migration attempts in the past few months, as hundreds have been arrested for attempting to exit the country illegally. Earlier in September, Egypt foiled an illegal migration attempt to Europe by 155. 

Last month, at least 200 people died after a boat carrying 600 migrants capsized off the coast of the Mediterranean in Burg Rashid, a village in the Northern Beheira province. 

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