UNHCR Syria Refugee Factsheet - April 2013

An overwhelming majority of Iraqi refugees
88.7% of refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Syria are from Iraq. 62.2% come from the region of Baghdad alone and 69.2% sought refuge in Syria five or more years ago. 34.3% of the 20,874 Iraqi families registered are female-headed house-holds.

Several thousand non-Iraqi refugees
UNHCR provides protection and assistance to 7,977 non-Iraqi refugees and asylum-seekers. Their situation remains precarious however as UNHCR documentation, which is frequently the only document they have, does not always suffice by itself to legitimate their presence in Syria.

An urban refugee operation
Apart from a few refugee families living in Al Hol camp in north-eastern Syria, all persons registered with UNHCR live in urban areas, mainly Damascus and its suburbs.

A high proportion of refugees with special needs
30,289 individuals (or 43.1% of the overall refugee population) have special needs and require targeted support, including 27,243 Iraqis (43.7% of the Iraqi registered population) and 3,046 non-Iraqis (38.1% of the non-Iraqi registered population).