SWITZERLAND: UNHCR says Syrians continue to pour across border into Turkey

Record ID: 281352

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: UNHCR says Syrians continue to pour across border into Turkey
  • Date: 17th August 2012
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (AUGUST 17, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF U.N. BUILDING IN GENEVA U.N. FLAG VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS AT NEWS BRIEFING UNHCR SPOKESPERSON ADRIAN EDWARDS ARRIVING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR SPOKESPERSON ADRIAN EDWARDS, SAYING: "To say though, there has been a further sharp rise in the numbers of Syrians fleeing to Turkey in particular, between Tuesday and W
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC5KQ4OLDG1EW3ANGQ6C1J4AB3
  • Story Text: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says Syrians are pouring into Turkey to escape the escalating violence in their country.

    Syrians continue to pour across the border into Turkey to escape fighting in their homeland, and diarrhoeal disease has broken out in rural areas near Damascus, United Nations aid agencies said on Friday (August 17).
    More than 170,000 Syrians have been registered to date in four neighbouring countries (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey), the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.
    Some 3,500 Syrians fleeing embattled northern areas of Aleppo, Azaz, Idlib and Latakia reached Turkey in the last two days alone, spokesman Adrian Edwards of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees told a news briefing in Geneva.
    "To say though, there has been a further sharp rise in the numbers of Syrians fleeing to Turkey in particular, between Tuesday and Wednesday 3,500 people crossed into the provinces of Kilis and Hatay according to local officials. Those who crossed into Kilis, and these number approximately 1,700 from the Azaz and Aleppo areas, while those into Hatay were mainly from Aleppo and surrounds, but also from Latakia and Idlib. With these latest arrivals there are now almost 65,000 Syrians in the nine camps in Turkey, though not all are yet formally registered. To put this in perspective, about forty percent of this number have arrived there during August," Edwards told reporters.
    The humanitarian situation in Syria has deteriorated as fighting escalates, cutting off civilians from food supplies, health care and other vital assistance, U.N. agencies say.
    There has been an outbreak of diarrhoea among residents in parts of rural Damascus, due to contamination of the water supply and poor sanitation, the World Health Organisation.
    Richard Brennan, director of WHO's emergency risk management and humanitarian response department, said that more than 100 cases had been detected in rural Damascus so far.
    "We're seeing increased rates of infectious diseases because of damage to sanitation systems and so on, so one particular incidence we've seen is within an area of rural Damascus, we've seen an increased rate in diarrhoea, about 103 cases, which we are investigating right now," Brennan told journalists.
    "We always take those types of incidences very, very seriously to ensure that they don't escalate. So I think at this early stage, we've identified 103 cases. We are worried about potential spread of that, in the number of cases," Brennan said, adding that children are particularly vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases which require appropriate treatment including hydration and antibiotics as necessary.
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