OSLO (Reuters) - Syria's
neighbors Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq are cutting back sharply on
the number of Syrians they allow onto their soil as they can no longer
cope with the influx of refugees, two prominent humanitarian agencies
said on Thursday.
The number of refugees able to flee their country's civil war fell 88
percent in October compared with the 2013 monthly average, to 18,453
people from over 150,000, the International Rescue Committee and the
Norwegian Refugee Council reported.
"Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that
the capacities of the host communities have been stretched to the limits
and argued for better international burden-sharing," said Jan Egeland,
Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq have taken in more than
three million Syrian since the conflict began in 2011, while countries
outside the region have agreed to accept around 50,000, or less than 2
percent of the total refugee population.
"What we are witnessing now are the results of our failure
to deliver the necessary support to the region. We are witnessing a
total collapse of international solidarity with millions of Syrian
civilians," said Egeland.
In October, Lebanon, which has the highest per capita
concentration of refugees in the world at one in four residents, said it
could not cope with more than one million Syrians and has asked for
funds to help look after them.
Resentment against Syrians has grown with many complaining
that refugees are taking jobs, driving down wages, overloading schools
and hospitals and even worsening an electricity shortage which pre-dates
the war in Syria.
The NGOs called on countries outside the region to provide financial
support to Syria's neighbors and take in at least five percent of the
total Syrian refugee population.
"More refugees have been displaced from Syria in the last
month than have been resettled outside the region in the last three
years. It is a depressing failure of international solidarity, and
should spur the world's wealthier countries into action," said David
Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee and a former
British foreign minister.