It is World Refugee Day and the United Nations has released a rather alarming report showing the highest refugee figure since World War Two.
The UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] says the number of people forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution exceeded 50 million in 2013.
The report claims the overall figure of 51.2 million is six million higher than the year before.
The head of the UNHCR, Antonio Guterres, said that the rise as a “dramatic challenge” for aid organisations.
Conflicts in Syria, Central Africa Republic and South Sudan fuelled the sharp increase, as indicated in the report.
To mark the World Refugee Day, Mr Guterres visited a refugee camp on Thursday to draw attention to and appeal for support with regards to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“An attitude of compassion and solidarity from the international community in relation to the Syrian refugees and to the countries hosting the refugees is needed more than ever. And what the international community is doing is very little compared with the suffering and the needs of the people we met,” he said.
There are now over one million Syrian refugees displaced in Lebanon, making up a quarter of the population.
Lebanon hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees in the region.
“We have only 20 per cent of the Syrian children in Lebanon, in formal education in foremost schools where they can get a diploma and then use it to move ahead in their lives.
“It is very little what we are doing and we need much more support of the international community for the Syrian refugees but also much support for a country like Lebanon, Jordan and countries that are facing enormous challenge,” Guterres stressed.
At least 50,000 Syrian children work as child labourers in Lebanon, often as street vendors or at farms to support their families.
Meanwhile, Syrian army helicopter killed at least 20 people this week mostly women and children in the first attack on a refugee camp in southern Syria.
Residents and opposition activists said that the army dropped several barrel bombs and highly destructive improvised explosives, which has been condemned by western parts as a war crime.
