Nearly 4 million Syrian refugees have fled their homeland since four years when the uprising by people against Bashar al-Assad began.
An official tally by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states that there are currently 3.9 million registered Syrian refugees, which is up from about 2.7 million a year ago.
Another 7.6 million Syrians remain in the country but are displaced from their homes and 5.5 million Syrian children have been affected by the battles, according to USAID. Many have stopped attending school.
The UN predicts that by the end of 2015, up to 4.27 million refugees could be registered – making it the largest exodus of a country’s citizens since the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago, Al Jazeera reports.
More than half of all Syrian refugees are under the age of 18.
The vast majority of Syrian refugees are now in Turkey and Lebanon, though some have also made their way to Jordan, Iraq and North Africa.
International groups have struggled to get aid to many who need it, particularly the 1.2 million who have fled to Lebanon where the government has run out of assistance and discouraged new refugees from entering the country.
UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told Al Jazeera that it has been very difficult to cope with such high numbers of refugees, because of a lack of funding.
“In 2014, we received only 54 percent of the funding requested for refugees, which means we covered just over half of the needs,” Fleming said.
“Meanwhile, refugees and displaced Syrians have exhausted their savings and increasing numbers are resorting to begging, child labour, even prostitution to make ends meet.
“More than 2.3 million children inside Syria are not in school. Among refugees, the numbers are even worse: with nearly half of children not receiving an education,” she said.
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