Amin Awad, the Middle East director for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, said Russian airstrikes and increased fighting around the Syrian city of Aleppo had contributed to the “dynamic of displacement”, with about 30,000 displaced.
The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs puts the number at 50,000.
On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that the number of refugees and migrants reaching Greece surged to 48,000 in the five days to Oct. 21.
IOM said the latest surge of people arriving in Greece was the highest weekly total so far this year, bringing the number of Mediterranean migrant arrivals in Europe to 681,000.
The area bordering the Turkish city of Kilis has saw an influx of hundreds of Syrians who fled the Russian aerial attacks on Aleppo, seeking refuge in that area.
Burak Karacaoglu, a media advisor on the Syrian file in Turley’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), said that during his visit to the town of Tal Rifaat north of Aleppo on a humanitarian mission he saw about 1,500 people who have fled to the farmlands to escape the Russian airstrikes on Aleppo and its surroundings. He added the they set up a primitive camp by their own efforts.
President Khoja said earlier that the Russian invasion of Syria will destabilize the region and threatens its security.
Khoja stresses the need to establish a safe zone in the country’s north and south to protect a Syrians from Assad’s barrel bombs and to curb the flow of refugees to outside Syria.
He added that a safe zone is needed to achieve stability, enable the displaced people return to their homes and to deliver relief aid more effectively. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Anadolu)
