Migration profile : Syria

Abstract

The Syrian conflict started in March 2011 with a few popular demonstrations and swiftly escalated into a civil war involving international actors. Of the approximately 22 million Syrians recorded in the country on the eve of the war, as of November 2015, perhaps a quarter of a million have been killed; 7.6 million were internally displaced; and an estimated 5.6 million left the country. Of these, the great majority (4.3 million, or 76 percent of all refugees) moved to the countries neighbouring Syria: Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, as well as, in lesser numbers, to Egypt.