UNHCR Calls on International Community to Host 480,000 Syrian Refugees

The request was made by the humanitarian organization on Monday, the fifth anniversary of the Syrian conflict which has caused some 4.8 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries and some 6.6 million people now displaced inside their country.

The UNHCR urges the international community to offer relocation places in a third country to ten percent of the registered refugees in the region, some 480,000, which would represent a great advance over the 170,000 places offered so far.

"A tragedy of this scale demands solidarity beyond funding. Put simply, we need more countries to share the load by taking a greater share of refugees from what has become the biggest displacement crisis of a generation," United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi was quoted in a statement.

On Mar. 30, a high-level meeting, exclusively devoted to the relocation of refugees, will take place in Geneva after a previous one held on Feb. 4 in London, in which the goal was to raise money for humanitarian operations.

The High Commissioner recalled that the war in Syria has caused the largest displacement of people of our times, and yet, there are growing obstacles instead of extended solidarity.

"Several countries have imposed entry and border restrictions, leading to a build-up of tens of thousands of refugees in Greece, while the European Union is in discussions with Turkey on an agreement that could potentially see asylum-seekers sent back to Turkey," the UNHCR representative denounced.

"We are at a crossroads now as we mark another sad milestone in Syria's war: if the world fails to work together due to short-term interests, lack of courage and knee jerk reactions to shift the burden elsewhere, we will look back ruefully on this lost opportunity to act with solidarity and shared humanity," Grandi concluded.