updated 2/8/2013 5:16:36 AM ET 2013-02-08T10:16:36

GENEVA (Reuters) - About 5,000 refugees are fleeing Syria each day, seeking safe haven in neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

"This is a full-on crisis," Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a news briefing in Geneva. "There was a huge increase in January alone, we're talking about a 25 percent increase in registered refugee numbers over a single month."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Discuss:

Discussion comments

,

Most active discussions

  1. votes comments
  2. votes comments
  3. votes comments
  4. votes comments
  1. Jump to text

    GENEVA (Reuters) - About 5,000 refugees are flee...

  2. Jump to discussion

    U.N. says 5,000 Syrian refugees fleeing each day