GENEVA — As fighting continues in Syria, an “extraordinary acceleration" in movements of refugees is compounding the difficulties for humanitarian relief efforts, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.
Around 2,000 Syrians are crossing daily into Jordan amid continuing air and artillery attacks on towns near the southern border, Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the agency, said.
Thousands more Syrians are reported to be moving south from village to village seeking safety from the fighting before crossing into Jordan, he said.
The exodus has pushed the number of Syrian refugees to more than a quarter of a million, Edwards said. Of the total, Jordan now has more than 85,000 refugees and Turkey more than 78,000, the refugee agency said, counting those who have registered or are awaiting registration with the agency. But many more refugees have not registered, and both countries say they have received roughly double the United Nations’ numbers.
The agency said more than 10,000 are waiting to cross into Turkey.
The latest estimates came as Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, and the actress Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the agency, toured the Za’atri camp in northern Jordan to draw attention to the needs of the swelling refugee population.
