There comes a point in most computations when the numbers grow so large as to be meaningless - simply because they can no longer be imagined. There are now more than four million Syrian refugees according to the latest UN figures. That is over a sixth of all Syrians who have now fled their towns and villages and quit their country. It is as if the entire population of Jeddah had up and left, abandoning homes and businesses. But it is worse. There are more than seven million more Syrians who have fled to other places within Syria, where they hope they can find a safe refuge. What is even more concerning is that in just 10 months, the number of refugees heading into exile has risen by over a million. Not all of these people have run away from the murderous barrel bombs of Assad's air force and the sallies by his brutal Shabiha militias. Even though it once hardly seemed possible, the even more bloodthirsty killers of Daesh, (the self-proclaimed IS) have also driven large numbers of people from their homes. The unique savagery of these terrorists is that they are sick enough to publicize their horrific crimes on social media. The message is clear. Anyone captured who has served the Syrian state or rejects the blasphemies of Daesh will get a bullet in the back of the head. The terror instilled by such publicized depravities means that no reasonable family head will risk his relatives falling into the hands of such monsters. Thus it can be assumed with some certainty that the surge in refugees in the last 10 months, is almost totally as a direct result of the barbarous behavior of Daesh. Add to this tidal wave of terrorized humanity the quarter of a million people who have died in the past four years and up to a million more who have been critically injured and maimed for life, and the sheer scale of this disaster becomes almost unimaginable. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres this week described Syria as “the worst humanitarian crisis of our generation”. By the end of this year, he estimated that a further 270,000 Syrians would have left their country. Yet in the face of this tidal wave of human misery and despair, the international community has become callous. Since the start of the refugee crisis, Saudi Arabia has led fellow Gulf states in generous subventions both directly to host governments, such as Jordan and Lebanon, and to international organizations, including the Red Crescent and UNHCR. Unfortunately, after initial sympathy and enthusiasm, the wider international community has not managed to sustain its generous impulses. Thus Guterres has warned that the UNHCR is very far from receiving the $5.5 billion it requires to care for exiled Syrian refugees in the course of 2015 alone. Indeed, over half way into the year, only a little over $1 billion has been given to the organization. It is hard to resist the suspicion that shame at its failure to intervene decisively against the Assad dictatorship before the Daesh phenomenon had raised its ugly head is causing much of the international community to behave as if the problem no longer exists. If only that option were also available to the four million Syrians languishing in the misery of camps around the borders of their devastated country.
