GENEVA
The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, on Friday called upon states to make multi-annual commitments towards providing resettlement and other forms of admission for an additional 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016.
"To date, 20 countries have offered more than 18,800 places towards this goal," the UNHCR spokesman, Dan McNorton said in a press conference at the UN Office at Geneva on Friday.
UNHCR has previously called upon states to provide solutions for 30,000 of the most vulnerable of Syria’s refugees through resettlement or other forms of admission by the end of 2014.
Fifteen federal states in Germany have launched programs for Syria’s nationals with relatives in Germany. Approximately, 1,500 visas have been issued under this scheme to date, McNorton added.
McNorton also said that Germany has also offered 10,000 humanitarian admissions; Sweden has offered 1,200 refugees resettlement; and Norway has offered 1,000 places.
The vast majority of Syria’s refugees are currently residing in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
There are currently over 2.4 million refugees registered in the region. In Lebanon, there are some 932,000, Turkey some 613,000, Jordan some 574,000, Iraq some 223,000 and Egypt some 134,000 refugees.
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