Over 4 mln Syrians displaced in neighboring countries: UN refugee agency

More than four million Syrians have now become refugees in neighboring countries, making the Syrian conflict the worst refugee crisis for almost a quarter of a century, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Thursday.

"The latest figures from UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) released today put the total number of refugees from Syria to just over 4,013,000 people," Dujarric said at a daily news briefing.

The conflict in Syria, which broke out in March 2011, led to a massive influx of Syrian refugees into neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said " this is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation."

"It is a population that deserves the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into abject poverty," Guterres was quoted as saying.

At least an additional 7.6 million people are displaced within Syria, many of them in difficult circumstances and in locations that are difficult to reach.

Also on Thursday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said they have reached the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, in northern Ar-Raqqa governorate, for the first time in eight months, delivering desperately needed food assistance to 10,000 people.

At the same time, however, life for Syrians in exile is becoming increasingly tough. The UN agency explained that some 86 percent of refugees outside Jordanian resettlement camps live below the poverty line. In Lebanon, 55 percent of refugees live in shelters considered to be "sub-standard."

In a recent report from the ground, the United Nations Children 's Fund (UNICEF) similarly warned that as the Syrian crisis has dramatically reduced family livelihood opportunities and impoverished millions of households in the region, children have been steadily pushed into the job market and are now being widely employed in harmful working conditions, risking serious damage to their health and wellbeing.

"Worsening conditions are driving growing numbers towards Europe and further afield, but the overwhelming majority remain in the region," Guterres said. "We cannot afford to let them and the communities hosting them slide further into desperation."

While the conflict continues to push a steady outflow of Syrians across the region, the conditions of those trapped inside the country's besieged cities remains equally dire.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) has cautioned that some 12 million people in the Middle Eastern country today remain in need of humanitarian assistance -- a twelve-fold increase since 2011. 7.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict and another 4.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

The humanitarian impact of the crisis is only further compounded by funding shortfalls which has seen wholesale cuts to the UN's delivery of humanitarian aid -- from food assistance to lifesaving health services. Endite