N Y Times - Syrian Refugee Crisis

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Syria-Iraq border, August 2013

The Historic Scale
of Syria’s
Refugee Crisis

Photographs by LYNSEY ADDARIO

The Syrian refugee crisis has exploded from about 270,000 people a year ago to today’s tally of more than two million who have fled the country. The pace of the diaspora has been characterized by the United Nations as the worst since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. In addition, an estimated 4.25 million Syrians have been displaced within their country, bringing the total number forced into flight to more than six million. Related Article »

RWANDA, 1994

Gilles Peress/Magnum Photos

KOSOVO, 1999

Cristina Garcia Rodero/Magnum Photos

IRAQ, 2007

Joachim Ladefoged/VII

According to the United Nations, the flood of Syrian refugees is comparable to the crises caused by the war and sectarian violence in Iraq and by the conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Iraq 197,000 Syrian refugees

In August, as many as 40,000 people hiked through the dry hills of eastern Syria to Peshkhabour, a border town in Iraqi Kurdistan. Many refugees described a campaign by jihadi fighters to destroy agriculture and cut power and water supplies in Syrian Kurdish areas.

Lebanon 790,000 refugees

The refugee crisis worsened once the war overtook Syria’s most populated areas. Raeda, 15, shown above with her baby brother in Saidnayel, Lebanon, is originally from Aleppo, a city of 2.1 million. She lost sight in one eye after being hit by shrapnel from an explosion near her house.

Lebanon’s population has grown almost 20 percent over the past year because of the refugee influx. Since the government has decided not to build official camps, most of the 790,000 Syrians now in Lebanon live wherever they can find shelter: in half-finished cinder block houses, stables, crowded apartments and makeshift camps.

Turkey 504,000 refugees

In Turkey, the government houses about 200,000 refugees in tent and trailer camps, and at least 300,000 more are thought to be spread around the country. Above, workers in Kilis, a Turkish town near the border with Syria, loaded bags of flour onto a truck delivering humanitarian aid to Syria in February.

Jordan has the second-largest population of Syrian refugees. Below, refugees wait in the registration line at the Zaatari camp, which has swelled over the past year to 120,000 residents. The camp has become one of Jordan’s largest cities.

Jordan 543,000 refugees

Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt together have received more than two million refugees. In June, the United Nations asked other countries to receive 10,000 refugees by the end of this year. So far, about 1,200 Syrians have been referred to those countries for relocation. Thousands more have reached as far as Europe, smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea.

DAVID FURST, JON HUANG and SERGIO PEÇANHA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Source: Refugee data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Camp data from the United States Department of State.