UPDATE: SYRIA: UN agency urges Europe to shoulder more of refugee challenge

United Nations News Centre - Syria: UN agency urges Europe to shoulder more of refugee challenge: "11 July 2014 – With Syria heading into its fourth year of conflict, a United Nations agency today called on Europe to do more to help Syrian refugees, after a new report found that some nations in the region are turning back asylum seekers and ‘shouldering only a small part’ of the challenges.

“In fact, they are minuscule and represent only four per cent of Syrian refugees,” UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Melissa Fleming told journalists in Geneva in reference to the Syrian refugee figure in Europe.

Until now, just 123,600 Syrian refugees have sought asylum in Europe, according to a new report, Syrian Refugees in Europe: What Europe can do to Ensure Protection and Solidarity. This figure stands in sharp conflict to the nearly 3 million refugees who have sought safety in countries neighbouring Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

“An increasing number of Syrians are now seeking safety in countries beyond the immediate region,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told journalists in Geneva. “Many are embarking on long and dangerous journeys to reach safety and in some cases to reunite with family members already in Europe.”

In the European Union, Syrian asylum-seekers are mostly concentrated in Sweden, Germany, Bulgaria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, with Sweden and Germany receiving 56 per cent of the new Syrian asylum applications."



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