UN doubles aid to people displaced inside Syria

As the number of Syrians fleeing their homes continues to soar, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday it would more than double aid to people displaced inside Syria. "UNHCR's share of the budget in a revised Syria Humanitarian Response Plan being presented to donors this morning is more than doubling to $41.7 million," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. The agency stressed that this plan is separate from the aid plan for refugees who have fled Syria to neighbouring countries. So far, 246,267 Syrian refugees have been registered or are awaiting registration in surrounding nations, it added. "The numbers are enormous," an agency spokesman lamented. Of those refugees, more than 81,000 have made their way to Jordan, nearly 65,000 are in Lebanon, more than 78,000 are in Turkey and nearly 22,000 are in Iraq, according to UNHCR statistics. Yet, the need for assistance inside Syria is also massive. "Last week alone, close to 3,000 refugees went to the UNHCR office in Damascus with concerns about security, financial difficulties and need for resettlement," the agency said. The violence in Syria has claimed more than 26,000 lives since it erupted in mid-March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.