(MENAFN - Jordan Times) The number of registered Syrian refugees in the Kingdom has surpassed 14,000, the UN announced on Tuesday, amid an ongoing influx relief agencies place at dozens per day.
In a weekly report issued Tuesday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) revealed that over 14,000 Syrians had registered with the agency since March 2011, with an additional 2,600 files in process.
Some 7,630 Syrians registered with the commission in the month of April, the UN agency revealed, well over the 4,650 registrations recorded in the entire period between March 2011 and February 2012.
The UNHCR attributed the rise in registrations to an outreach campaign targeting displaced Syrians in the Kingdom, who are mainly concentrated in the northern cities of Ramtha and Mafraq and have largely avoided registration due to fear for their safety.
UN officials acknowledge that the current number of registrations is unrepresentative of the total number of Syrians in need in the Kingdom, which various officials place at around 30,000.
The bulk of Syrians registered with the UN agency, around 40 per cent, originate from Homs, with 35 per cent from Daraa: both restive regions that have witnessed the brunt of ongoing violence which has claimed the lives of over 9,000 civilians.
Some 17 per cent of Syrian refugees in Jordan originate from Hama and Damascus, according to the report, which revealed that approximately half of Syrians who have approached the agency seeking assistance are children.
The surge in registrations comes amid a funding shortfall, with UNHCR yet to fulfil an 80 million aid appeal to provide services to the thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
In previous statements, UNHCR Representative in Jordan Andrew Harper indicated that the rising numbers of refugees was forcing officials to revise the initial appeal - 40 million of which was reserved for Jordan.
Meanwhile, the exodus of Syrians into the Kingdom has continued unabated, according to charitable societies, with Al Kitab and Sunna and the Islamic Charitable Society reporting some 100 new arrivals per day.
The influx has placed added stress on the so-called Al Bashabsheh complex, a housing facility in Ramtha used to temporarily house illegal arrivals, with two additional facilities set to open in the border city this month, according to officials.
Jordan follows an open-border policy, having received over 110,000 Syrians since the outbreak in violence in its northern neighbour in March, 2011.
