CPC researcher comments on the Syrian refugee crisis

CPC researcher, Dr Jakub Bijak, was interviewed on BBC Radio Solent on 3 September about the demographic changes affecting Syria as a result of its worsening refugee crisis.

"What we're seeing is an unprecedented refugee flow from Syria, and flows of displaced persons within Syria; the UN refugee agency estimates more than 4 million people have been displaced within Syria itself." Dr Bijak commented. "If you imagine, out of every ten Syrians, two have been displaced internally, and one more is currently a refugee outside of the country's boundaries. It's not only the numbers; what's really frightening is the speed at which this is happening."

He continued: "As mentioned in the news, it's estimated that over 100,000 people have already died. Interestingly, those were mostly men of military age. Who are the refugees and displaced persons? Mostly women and children. So you can see the dynamics of the underlying population and displacements; families are fleeing to safe places."

"The greatest challenge now is for this not to become a permanent state where they are stuck in refugee camps somewhere in the neighbouring countries, which can barely cope with such an influx themselves."

You can listen to the full segment on the BBC Radio Solent website (from 1:05:20) and read more on the University of Southampton's In Our View page.

You can also read an extended interview with Dr Bijak on the ESRC website 'The Syrian refugee crisis'

Posted 04/09/2013 11:08