The international community can no more deny the fact that the Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, a UAE daily newspaper commented in its editorial today.
''The plight of people in Syria has deepened over the years. The only way now is to reach out to the victims promptly and offer the best possible help as fellow humans, Sharjah-based The Gulf Today remarked.
It said:'' Now that the United Nations has declared the number of refugees from the conflict in Syria has topped three million, the world better wake up to reality and realise that it has failed to meet the needs of victims.
It is extremely perturbing to note that a million people joined the exodus in the past year alone.
What is also worrying, the paper noted, is that Syrians desperate to leave their homeland are forced to pay hefty bribes at armed checkpoints proliferating along Syria’s borders or to smugglers.
''Releasing the latest Syrian refugee numbers, the United Nations stated that a further 6.5 million people were displaced within Syria, which means almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their homes and flee for their lives.
''The war has already claimed some 191,000 since it erupted in March 2011. Increasing numbers of Syrian families arrive in neighbouring countries in a shocking state, exhausted, scared and with their savings depleted. UN officials say that many have been on the run for a year or more,''it said.
''There have been cases of people who have been internally displaced inside the country moving from village to village, up to as many as 20 times, before they finally made it across an international border.
''As Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who serves as UNHCR special envoy, emotionally mentioned, "Three million refugees is not just another statistic. It is a searing indictment of our collective failure to end the war in Syria. International stability is steadily bleeding away in Syria. UN Security Council Resolutions are being ignored; war crimes are being committed on a daily basis," The Gulf Today concluded.