CAIRO - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)'s Mohamed Dayri has said on Thursday that there are 150,000 Syrian refugees in Egypt. “Despite this, only 4,800 Syrians have registered with the refugee agency in Cairo," he added in a Cairo meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria and neighbouring countries. Dayri, who said that they reside mainly in Cairo and Alexandria, called on Egypt to help the agency deal with the increasing number of Syrian refugees here. Meanwhile, over 340,000 Syrians have crossed the border to Syria's neighbours – Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Seventy-five per cent of them are women and children. "This number could hit 710,000 by the end of the year," warned Panos Moumtzis, the Regional Refugee Co-ordinator for Syrian Refugees. "We suffer a problem in funding. We need urgent funds of $487 million to provide these refugees' basic needs. At the moment, we only have $141.5 million." The security situation continues to deteriorate as the conflict escalates in the largest cities – Aleppo and Damascus. Aleppo is suffering its third consecutive month of fighting. Increasing numbers of people have been forced to leave Aleppo and its surrounding rural areas, with over 42,000 of them now staying in shelters. Fighting moved to the Syrian-Turkish border and tensions between the two countries escalated, when on October 3 shelling from Syria claimed the lives of five women and children in the Turkish village of Akcakeale, which triggered Turkey's retaliatory artillery fire into Syria. Syrians keep on fleeing their homes to seek refuge in safer areas. Around 1.2 million of the 2.5 million affected population are internally displaced, with many staying in schools and other public buildings. "The situation in Syria is deteriorating day by day. About 50 per cent of industry there has ground to a halt, while 2,000 schools have been devastated, and tourism, agriculture and the economy have been badly affected," said Radhoune Nouicer, the Regional Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Syria. "Women, old people and children are in shock and very frightened, as they witness death and blood everywhere. We need an urgent solution and dialogue to resolve the crisis. This violence must be stopped," he added. With the onset of winter, the humanitarian situation is likely to worsen, as the loss of livelihoods and increasing prices make access to essential items, such as fuel, heating and electricity, increasingly difficult. The situation is particularly dire for those living in shelters, lacking adequate insulation from the cold. "The crisis is also taking its toll on the Palestinian refugees in Syria, because, according to the United nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA], there are 220,000 Palestinians in Syria in need of urgent humanitarian aid," Nouicer stressed.
