Syrian Refugees
Syrian Refugees
Syrian Refugees
Jordan: 629,000
Jordan provides shelter to a large number of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Somalia and
Sudan, but Syrians constitute the majority of Jordan's refugee population, the United
Nations says.
Jordan has a history of taking in refugees. Nearly half of its 7 million population is of
Palestinian origin.
The Syrian arrivals, however, strain resources and "could have a negative impact on
Jordanian public opinion of refugees and make preserving the country's asylum
space in the country challenging," the United Nations says.
About 20% of the Syrian arrivals live in camps.
Iraq: 249,000
Like Syria, Iraq has been torn by attacks launched by ISIS, the extremist Islamist
group that has captured portions of both countries for what it calls its Islamic
caliphate.
Not surprisingly, most of the Syrian refugees have settled in northern areas such as
Irbil, Duhuk and Nineveh, which are among the closest to the Syrian border and
have large Kurdish populations, the United Nations says.
The notion of Syrian refugees in Iraq may strike some as ironic, if not absurd,
because Iraq has deteriorated under sectarian strife and ISIS assaults, producing a
sizable population of Iraqi refugees.
"As Syria's civil war has dragged on, the direction of forced migration for many Iraqi
refugees has reversed. Tens of thousands of Iraqis who sought refuge in Syria
between 2003 and 2011 have returned home, joining about a million Iraqis who
were already internally displaced," Refugees International said.
About 38% of the Syrian refugees live in camps in Iraq, the U.S. State Department
says.
Egypt: 132,000
Egypt rounds out this look at how the Mideast hosts most of the Syrian refugees.
No refugees live in camps there.
In fact, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, one of the region's wealthiest men, has
offered to buy an island for refugees. He would like to buy an isle from Greece or
Italy. His name for the proposed island home: Hope.
Which countries are getting Syrian asylum requests?
Germany: 98,700
As Germany faces the largest share of Syrian requests for asylum in
Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel called for quotas to be set for each country to
take a share of displaced people, including from Syria.
Germany expects the overall asylum requests to soar above the current U.N. count
of 98,700 from Syrians alone.
There could be 800,000 applications for asylum in Germany this year, and the
country could take 500,000 refugees annually for several years, Vice Chancellor
Sigmar Gabriel has said.
Sweden: 64,700
Sweden joins Germany in demonstrating a high standard of responsibility in the
refugee crisis, and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven joined Merkel at a press
conference this week in urging a Europe-wide solution for hosting refugees.
In the 1990s, Sweden accepted 84,000 refugees from the Balkans.
"We accept that every person has a right to seek asylum," Swedish Foreign Affairs
Minister Margot Wallstrom said. "This also puts the European solidarity to a test. I
think it's important that we signal being a community that rests on common values
of democracy and defense of human rights."
France: 6,700
The number of asylum requests has been relatively low.
But they will surely increase now that French President Franois Hollande has said
France is ready to take on more responsibility and host 24,000 refugees over the
next two years.
The French leader said this number would be France's share under a proposal by the
European Commission for EU nations to take in 120,000 refugees over the next two
years.
"We will do so because it is the principle to which France is committed," Hollande
said.
United Kingdom: 7,000
The United Kingdom will likely see an upswing in asylum requests now that it has
said it will take up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.
But Britain will focus on resettling vulnerable refugees from camps in countries
bordering Syria, not those who have already entered Europe, Prime Minister David
Cameron said Monday.
"This provides refugees with a more direct and safe route to the United Kingdom
rather than risking the hazardous journey to Europe, which has tragically cost so
many lives," he said.
The refugees will receive a five-year humanitarian protection visa, Cameron said.
Britain has been the second largest provider of humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees
within the Middle East region,according to U.N. figures.
Denmark: 11,300
Denmark has received a relatively large number of Syrian asylum requests but has
sought to discourage the arrival of more migrants.
On Wednesday, Danish authorities tried to restrict migrants from crossing into the
country from central Europe. Danish police said via Twitter it blocked access to
some highways and suspended some international railway traffic.
The country earlier had paid for ads in Arabic in four Lebanese newspapers to get
the word out about its new, tightened restrictions -- such as reducing social benefits
-- to try to prevent refugees from getting into the Scandinavian nation.
"We cannot simply keep up with the present flow," Immigration and Integration
Minister Inger Stojberg, a member of the right-wing Venstre Party, said on Facebook.
"In light of the huge influx to Europe these days, there is good reason for us to
tighten rules and get that effectively communicated."
Hungary: 18,800
Many Syrian refugees are reluctant to register an asylum application in Hungary.
Having traveled north through the Balkans, those arriving on the country's border
with Serbia have had police greet them, and they've been forced to wait, sometimes
for days, in holding areas and transit camps, where conditions are said to be poor.
Many migrants would prefer to register as refugees in countries such as Germany,
Sweden and Austria, continuing their journey through Hungary to Northern and
Western Europe.
Hungary's right-wing government, which has been trying to stop the flood of
migrants, has erected a barbed wire fence along its more than 160-kilometer (100mile) border with Serbia to prevent them from crossing there.
Serbia, which has received 49,500 asylum requests from Syrian refugees, is not a
member of the European Union.
Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East and North
Africa, has called those wealthy countries' inaction in the Syrian crisis "shameful."
The United Arab Emirates would seem to be the exception.
The UAE has received more than 100,000 Syrian nationals since the Syrian crisis
began in 2011 and extended residency permits to them, bringing the number of
Syrians living there to almost 250,000, a UAE government source told CNN.
"We would like to see the Syrian refugees stay close to their homeland and to
support them while they are there, so they can eventually return to their
homeland," the source said, adding that most refugees fleeing to Europe will likely
never return to Syria.
The source said the UAE also is financing al Mreejab Al Fhood refugee camp in
Jordan, contributing some $72 million over two years for camps elsewhere in that
country and in Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.
The Gulf nations have said each has given millions of dollars to help the refugees,
amounting to more than $500 million over 2 years, according to the United
Nations.
The Gulf states also say that Syrians have entered their countries on visas and
continue living there.