So far this year, more than 644,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea. Of these, just over a third – 34 per cent – are women and children who are particularly vulnerable to abuse as they transit Europe, UNHCR said.

“Refugee and migrant children moving in Europe are at heightened risk of violence and abuse, including sexual violence, especially in overcrowded reception sites, or in many locations where refugees and migrants gather, such as parks, train stations, bus stations and roadsides,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told a news conference in Geneva.

“From testimony and reports we have received there have been instances of children engaging in survival sex to pay smugglers to continue their journey, either because they have run out money, or because they have been robbed,” she added.

Fleming noted that unaccompanied children can be particularly vulnerable as they lack the protection and care of an adult. They may also be placed in detention in some countries, including with adults, posing great risks to them, she said.

Refugee and migrant women travelling on their own are also at heightened risk as they move through Europe, sometimes at night, along insecure routes or staying in places that lack basic security. Many reception centres are overcrowded, and lack adequate lighting and separated spaces for single women and families with children.

UNHCR is appealing to all concerned national authorities in Europe to take measures to ensure the protection of women and girls, including through providing adequate and safe reception facilities.

The refugee agency is also calling to all authorities, as a matter of urgency, to find alternatives to the detention of children. UNHCR and partners are working to prevent and address immediately family separations, as women and girls on their own face enhanced risks.

Together with partners, UNHCR are working with authorities to ensure access to information, to enhance the identification of persons with specific needs, including unaccompanied children, and their referral to appropriate services, to provide psychosocial support and to enhance reception areas, including through the provision of safe spaces.

It is of utmost importance here, as in other parts of Europe, that reception conditions be adequate to the task. Without this essential element, the relocation programme agreed by Europe in September is in serious peril and may fail.

After the chaotic and miserable scenes over the past few days, borders along the Balkan routes have reopened. On the Serbian border with Croatia, some 3000 people were left waiting amid uncertainty in the rain from Sunday until late Monday afternoon without shelter, and with minimal assistance on hand. UNHCR staff and staff of our partner organizations provided what support they could at such short notice including food, water, and blankets. But many people, including the elderly, pregnant women and several physically handicapped people, were soaked through and instances of hypothermia were reported. There was similar misery on the Croatia-Slovenia border.

And while conditions are still difficult in some places and there is a backlog, movement has resumed, with 4,300 people arriving in Austria from Slovenia yesterday. Meanwhile, in Austria and Germany, tens of thousands of refugees and migrants are sleeping in tents and temporary shelters because of accommodation shortages.

In the Aegean, we are saddened by the recent wave of deaths at sea among people crossing from Turkey into Greece. 19 people have died in the past 9 days in five separate incidents, almost half of these over the weekend. Infants and children were among those who have perished. Refugees we spoke to over the weekend told us that smugglers are offering discounts rates for crossings in bad weather and packing more people onto boats.

At least 123 people have died or gone missing in Greek territorial waters so far this year (in all, at least 3,135 have perished in the Mediterranean to date in 2015). We are concerned at the potential for this number to rise further as people try to beat the onset of winter and fears of new border-closures. UNHCR urges that search and rescue operations be further strengthened in this area to reduce risks.

To address the current situation in Europe, various measures of stabilization are needed in countries of first asylum and all countries of secondary movements to reduce irregular secondary movements. These measures include strong support to countries hosting the vast majority of Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees, an information campaign informing of the dangers of the sea journey, and the development of legal pathways to seek protection in Europe. In countries of secondary movement in Europe, significant efforts must be made to develop a robust reception and registration capacity in order for the relocation programme to work.

“To date, the Government of Syria has fully cooperated in supporting the work of the advance team and the OPCW-UN Joint Mission,” said Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag in a statement from Damascus.

She noted that the timeframes are “challenging” given the goal of eliminating the country’s chemical weapons programme in the first half of 2014.

Inspections so far have been conducted at 17 sites, the OPCW confirmed today. At 14 of these sites, the inspectors carried out activities related to the destruction of critical equipment to make the facilities inoperable.

“The Technical Secretariat continues to assist Syria in Damascus in finalising its initial formal declaration covering its chemical weapons and related facilities,” the OPCW noted on its website.

Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is racing against time to help Syrians prepare for oncoming winter as temperatures across the region are already dropping.

Spokesperson Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva that UNHCR relief aid has been delivered to some 2,500 people who have now been evacuated from Mouadamiya in Rural Damascus, where thousands are still believed to be trapped.

In addition to monitoring the general condition and protection concerns of these internally displaced people, UNHCR delivered relief items including mattresses, blankets, cooking sets, hygienic supplies and other aid.

Last week, through local partners, UNHCR delivered aid within the hard-to-reach city of Raqqa to more than 10,000 people. Raqqa, located in northern Iraq, hosts internally displaced people from Deir es Zour and from Aleppo, 160 kilometres to the west.

“UNHCR observed that many of the displaced are living in buildings that lack windows, doors and electricity. People in this area will soon urgently require thermal blankets and plastic sheets to deal with winter temperatures,” Edwards said.

“Virtually every town and city across Syria is affected by the conflict or hosts traumatized, displaced people,” the spokesperson said.

Women told us they lacked privacy in the collective shelters, Edwards noted. He added concerns about the vulnerability of women, many heading broken households.

In addition, the UN agency is worried about the impact of the crisis on young people, almost two million of whom have dropped out of school and a growing number of which are being exploited for labour or recruited into armed groups.

“The authorities should release the Syrian detainees unless they are promptly charged with a valid offense, and not deport Syrians with visas or asylum seekers without their claims being impartially reviewed.,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

According to HRW, On July 19 and 20, 2013, Egyptian police and military police arrested at least 72 Syrian men and nine boys at checkpoints on main roads in Cairo. Those who remain in custody, including registered asylum seekers and at least nine Syrians with valid visas or residence permits, have apparently not been charged with any offense.

The authorities have threatened to deport at least 14 of them to countries neighboring Syria, Human Rights Watch said.

“There is growing hostility in Egypt to the Syrians who fled there seeking refuge from the war,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But a tense political climate is no excuse for police and army officers to pull dozens of Syrian men and boys off of public transport and throw them in jail without regard for their rights.”

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that Syrian asylum seekers may be deported without a fair examination of their asylum claims, as required by international law.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, in Egypt has registered, or is in the process of registering, some 90,000 asylum seekers from Syria.

Since the Egyptian military removed Mohammed Mursi from power on July 3, regulations governing Syrians’ entrance to Egypt have changed.

Since July 8, Syrians have been required to obtain entry visas and security clearance before they arrive in Egypt, a hardship for those fleeing fighting.

Arrests of Syrians living in Egypt have increased to levels that activists working with Syrian refugees in Cairo told Human Rights Watch were unprecedented. 

On July 10, Egyptian television presenters on local channels including Faraeen and OnTV began accusing the Syrian community of siding with Morsy supporters, fueling an atmosphere of mistrust and xenophobia, HRW said.

“The Egyptian authorities should uphold their obligations to Syrian asylum seekers under international law,” Houry said. “That starts with ensuring that the security services immediately end their campaign of picking up Syrians on the streets and threatening them with summary deportation.”

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Syrian nationals that were turned back were returned to where their flights originated, including Damascus and Latakia.

This follows a decision on 8 July imposing new visa requirements, under which Syrian nationals are required to apply for a visa and security clearance prior to their travel to Egypt. UNHCR noted that the Egyptian Embassy in Damascus does not currently have the capacity to issue visas.

“I appeal to the Egyptian authorities, as I have to all other Governments in the world, to admit and protect all Syrians seeking refuge in their country,” High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said.

“I fully understand the challenges faced by Egypt at the present moment. But the traditional hospitality of the Egyptian people should not be denied to Syrians trying to flee the most devastating and dangerous conflict in the world today,” he added.

Civilians inside Syria have been under siege for over two years as the Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad continue to do battle. As many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced since the conflict began in March 2011.

UNHCR stated in a news release that it has formally expressed its concern about the change in Egyptian policy with the Government, noting the country’s great support since 2011, particularly in generously hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

“We urge the Egyptian authorities to do their utmost to ensure the continued protection of all who are in need of international protection, and to refrain from returning Syrians without a proper assessment of their protection needs,” said the agency.

UNHCR has registered almost 72,000 Syrian refugees in Egypt. Around 18,000 individuals await registration and plans for mobile registration in Alexandria and Damietta are under way. The Egyptian Government estimates that around 250,000 to 300,000 Syrian nationals currently reside in its territory.

Egypt has been grappling recently with its own political crisis, which escalated last week with the military removing President Mohamed Morsy from power amid widespread protests in which dozens of people were killed and wounded. The Constitution has been suspended and an interim government has now been set up in the country, which has been undergoing a democratic transition following a revolution two years ago.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos today issued a joint statement in which they urged immediate safe passage for civilians and aid workers in the Syrian cities of Homs and Aleppo.

“We are extremely alarmed at the escalating violence in Homs and Aleppo, and the humanitarian and human rights impact on ordinary people,” they stated. “We understand that up to 2,500 people remain trapped inside Homs, where there are reports of continuing shelling, use of long-range weapons and ground attacks using tanks. The presence of armed opposition groups inside residential areas also increases the risk for civilians.

“We call on all parties to immediately halt all actions that might result in civilian loss of life, to grant immediate safe passage to allow civilians to leave Homs and to allow humanitarian aid to get in. Negotiations on this continue but neither the Government nor armed groups have provided sufficient safety or security guarantees for civilians or aid workers,” they said.

The two officials added that UN agencies and humanitarian partners are helping people who have managed to leave Homs for safety in nearby towns and villages. Food and other basic supplies have been pre-positioned so that they can be delivered in Homs as soon as safe access is permitted, while humanitarian agencies continue to bring vital aid to communities in need in Aleppo and elsewhere.

“Syria’s neighbors should stop pushing desperate people back to places where their lives are in danger,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch. “International donors should help Syria’s neighbors by generously supporting them and humanitarian agencies assisting almost two million refugees.”

HRW which has documented the refugee situation on Syria’s borders says that although Jordan denies it has closed its borders, recently arrived Syrian refugees in Jordan say that Jordanian border guards blocked their and others’ entry for days or weeks in May. Since late 2011, Jordan has prevented Palestinians, Iraqis, single military-aged men, and anyone without identity documents from entering Jordan.

HRW has also found that authorities in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) admit that they closed their border with Syria in May, and that since mid-June only some Syrians in need of emergency humanitarian assistance have been allowed to cross while authorities in central Iraq maintain that they will admit “urgent humanitarian cases” and family reunification cases. But they have severely limited the number of Syrians allowed to enter since August 2012, and new arrivals virtually ceased in late March.

Turkey is blocking the entry of thousands of Syrians at the Bab al-Salam, Atma, and other border crossings with Syria and only sporadically allows small numbers from the Bab al-Salam camp and other displaced Syrian camps in Syria close to the Turkish border to cross into Turkey, with thousands blocked for weeks or months inside Syria, HRW also found.

In October, a senior Turkish official told Human Rights Watch that the country’s refugee camps were full and said that instead of allowing more Syrian refugees to enter, the government was making sure that assistance reached Syrians in areas close to the border.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of mid-June Jordan was hosting over 480,000 Syrian refugees who were either already registered or being registered by UNHCR, while Turkey was hosting over 387,000, and Iraq over 158,000. Lebanon has over 550,000 UNHCR-registered or registering Syrian refugees, adding approximately 10 per cent to its population, while the Lebanese government estimates the number of Syrians in the country at more than one million.

“Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey risk turning Syria into an open-air prison for tens of thousands of Syrians unable to escape the carnage in their country,” Simpson said. “Neither the pressure those countries are under due to rising refugee numbers, nor giving aid inside Syria, can justify violating people’s basic right to seek asylum from persecution and other abuse.”

“The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels – with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of just under 27,000 new killings since 1 December,” Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human rights, said in a news release.

According to an analysis carried out by data specialists on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), at least 92,901 people were killed in fighting between the Government and forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad between March 2011 and April 2013.

“Unfortunately…this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher,” said Ms. Pillay, urging the warring parties to declare an immediate ceasefire “before tens of thousands more people are killed or injured.”

The latest compilation updates a figure of 60,000 documented deaths during the time period up to 30 November 2012.

About 80 per cent of the victims documented are male, with the sharpest increase in deaths since November 2012 in Rural Damascus and Aleppo.

The Office also documented the “the killings of at least 6,561 minors, including at least 1,729 children under ten years old.”

“There are also well-documented cases of individual children being tortured and executed, and entire families, including babies, being massacred,” Ms. Pillay said, adding that along with the devastatingly high death toll, this is a terrible reminder of “just how vicious this conflict has become.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his latest report on the status of children in armed conflicts, cited verified reports that Syrian children are killed or injured in indiscriminate bombings, shot by snipers, used as human shields or victims of terror tactics.

“Civilians are bearing the brunt of widespread, violent and often indiscriminate attacks which are devastating whole swathes of major towns and cities, as well as outlying villages,” Ms. Pillay said today noting a “drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict” confirmed in a report by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

“Government forces are shelling and launching aerial attacks on urban areas day in and day out, and are also using strategic missiles and cluster and thermobaric bombs,” the UN human right chief said.

She added, “Opposition forces have also shelled residential areas, albeit using less fire-power and there have been multiple bombings resulting in casualties in the heart of cities, especially Damascus.”

Analysis of the latest death toll was carried out on behalf of OHCHR by the non-profit organization, Human Rights Dana Analysis Group, which compiled datasets from the Syrian Centre for Statistics and Research, the Government of Syria (up to March 2012 only), the Syrian Network for Human Rights, March 15 Group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian Revolution General Council, the Syria Shuhada Website, and the Violations Documentation Centre.

Information from the eight different sources resulted in a combined list of 263,055 reported killings, fully identified by the name of the victim, as well as the date and location of the death, OHCHR said. Any reported killing that did not include at least these three elements was excluded from the list.

Each reported killing was then compared to all the other reported killings in order to identify duplicates, resulting in 92,091 documented cases of individuals killed.

The statistical analysts who produced the report noted that there is “a strong likelihood” that a significant number of killings may not have been reported by all eight sources and that 37,988 reported killings containing insufficient information were excluded from the analysis.

The funding announced by the EU is among the largest so far to the Syria crisis by any donor. The €400 million is expected to go towards the regional refugee response as well as humanitarian needs inside Syria. UNHCR understands that €150 million is allotted for development-related aid that includes support to communities hosting refugees and security for refugee camps.

“This funding is extremely important and very, very timely,” a press release quoted Guterres as saying. “Syria is fast becoming one of the most tragic, most dangerous, and largest crises since the end of the Cold War, and it is causing suffering on an enormous scale. The urgency of needs is difficult to overstate.”

The Syria situation has grown rapidly in recent months, with thousands of people fleeing across borders daily, and placing strain on neighbouring countries as they cope with the inflows. UN humanitarian agencies are expected to announce on Friday a major new funding push, among which will be an appeal for targeted funds in support of two of the largest refugee-hosting countries, Jordan and Lebanon.

In view of the extraordinary scale and nature of the crisis, and to prevent exhaustion of donor funding for the world’s other current displacement emergencies – among them Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Myanmar – High Commissioner Guterres, along with his counterparts at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has in recent months appealed to governments worldwide to establish dedicated budgets for Syria.

Guterres yesterday reiterated this appeal. “We are facing a catastrophic situation in Syria, but we must not forget that on a daily basis thousands of people are being forcibly displaced in other regions and countries where there is conflict,” he said. “I encourage other donors to come forward as the European Union has done today.”

Since 2006, when the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began gathering data, close to half a million people have arrived in Yemen by taking the perilous boat journey from the Horn of Africa, the agency’s spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva.

“Yemen is a historical transit hub for migrants and stands out in the region for its hospitality towards refugees,” said Mr. Edwards, adding that the country hosts more than 242,000 refugees. Over 231,000 of these are of Somali origin.

Mr. Edwards noted that recorded arrivals in Yemen of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants have been rising in each of the past six years. Last year, 107,500 people made the journey. The arrival rate so far this year compares to 33,634 arrivals in the same period of 2012.

Somalis arriving in Yemen are automatically recognized as refugees by the authorities, while UNHCR conducts refugee status determination for other nationals.

According to the agency, Yemen is frequently used as a transit point by Ethiopians looking to travel to the Gulf States and beyond. Few Ethiopians decide to seek asylum. There are many reports of mistreatment, abuse, or torture among people who make the journey by smugglers boats.

“Conflict and instability in Yemen have limited the ability of the authorities to address trafficking, particularly along the Red Sea coast where Yemeni smugglers and traffickers are often waiting to receive new arrivals from the Horn of Africa,” said Mr. Edwards.

“However, recently the Government has been active in detecting smuggler hideouts and taking action,” he added.

Out of the total number of those arriving this year, some 7,518 arrived in January; 10,145 in February; and 1,806 in March. UNHCR is still recording arrivals for April.

The report, which covers the first three months of 2013 in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, shows that more than 1 million refugees need treatment for a wide range of both common and conflict-related conditions, Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists in Geneva.

Mr. Edwards explained that the situation is particularly challenging for those with chronic and other costly health conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular illnesses, as well as expensive referral care more commonly diagnosed and treated in middle-income countries. The report was primarily based on information from established refugee camps, except for data from Lebanon.

He said that as of last night, 1,401,435 Syrians had registered as refugees in the region or were pending registration. This corresponds to 30 per cent more than the total envisaged under the current Regional Refugee Response Plan by end June 2013 – for which around 55 per cent of funding has so far been received.

“An updated plan is due to be presented to donors in late May. UNHCR continues to roll out additional capacity as funding comes in,” he added.

With nearly 2.5 million Syrian refugees throughout the entire region, the report cites two major problems facing the health system. First, with low funding for the refugee crisis, the challenge of providing access to quality health care for Syrian refugees is growing – particularly for people living outside of camps.

Secondly, the increasing numbers of people needing medical help is straining existing health services in each of the affected countries.

“Both issues are a matter of serious concern to UNHCR,” Mr. Edwards stressed, adding: “We continue, with our partners, to provide medical care for refugees in the camps in Jordan and Iraq. But for those refugees who live outside of camps, often in urban settings, the situation is more difficult.”

In terms of the overall health situation of Syrian refugees, the UNHCR report shows a “mixed” picture. Syrian refugees are not reported to be suffering from high rates of mortality and acute malnutrition. Mortality at the Za’atri camp in Jordan, for example, is reported at 0.1 per 1,000 people per month, while global acute malnutrition in children below five years is less than 5.8 per cent – neither rate being outside norms seen in the region. This is in contrast to many other humanitarian situations in other parts of the world.

“However, preventive services, chronic disease treatment and expensive referral care are not sufficiently provided at a cost that refugees, despite the support provided by governments and humanitarian agencies, can afford,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a reception and concert in New York last night for Syrian children, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalled his visit to Za’atari camp last December. He was struck by how many children there were, lining the road “cheering, running and full of fun and mischief.”

Yet, he said, there was no disguising that their lives had been massively disrupted. “Most had fled with their families with only what they could carry. Many had witnessed or ensured unspeakable atrocities.” Almost 2 million children are internally displaced, and more than 600,000 have fled Syria as refugees, he added.

With no end to the conflict in sight, the Secretary-General called on the Security Council and countries in the region to come up with a unified position that can persuade all actors to come to the negotiating table. “We risk an entire generation of children being scarred for life. The children of Syria are our children. They need our help,” he implored.