Has the World Forgotten Syria? The True Scope of the Refugee Crisis Will Shock You

The crisis in Syria has seen hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced. The plight of Syrian refugees has become the leading humanitarian crisis facing the world.

The numbers are staggering, eclipsing all other wars in the past 25 years, according to Statista:

The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHRC) provides a deeper look at the 4 million refugees (not including the 7.6 million people displaced internally in Syria):

UNHCR

Where they have fled to:

UNHCR

And the continually mounting numbers of people attempting to escape the violence in their country:

UNHCR

The refugee crisis for Syrian began in 2011, according to MercyCorps, during the Arab Spring movement. In the city of Daraa, 15 children were arrested for anti-government graffiti. Starting on March 15, 2011, backlash protests sprung up all over the country, leading up to the “Syrian Day of Rage” in April.

Wikipedia

President Bashar al-Assad's police and the military cracked down on the mostly peaceful protests, killing 50, including 15 from Daraa. Thousands of Syrians with anti-government sympathies were imprisoned or killed.

Syrian men lie wounded in hospital beds in the southeastern Turkish city of Hatay, on June 7, 2011, close to the Syrian border. The men claim to have been injured by the police gun fire during an anti-government protest on May 20 in Syria; MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Image

The violence continued and within a month, the first Syrian refugees fled the country.

Syrian soldiers take position on the Syrian side of the border village of Arida, as seen from neighbouring Lebanon on May 20, 2011. At least 5,000 refugees have arrived in northern Lebanon; JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

Many escaped to Turkey, or other border countries and ended up in refugee camps.

Syrian refugee children flash V-signs at the Boynuyogun Turkish Red Crescent camp on June 12, 2011. Some 400 Syrian refugees crossed into Turkey overnight, bringing to more than 5,000 the number of people to have fled; MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

As the years of conflict have dragged on, only more Syrians have flooded the borders of their country, only to be housed in temporary camps already at capacity.

Children who fled the violence, play at the entrance of their tent at an unofficial refugee camp in Jabaa, with just blankets to shield them against the icy wind and rain tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are inadequately equipped to cope with winter; ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

The refugees live mostly off aid provided by the host country, or international charities. Yet still, these families lack many things such as warm clothes, safe housing, and opportunities to educate their children.

A Syrian Kurd teacher from Kobani, holds a lesson in a temporary classroom in Suruc refugee camp on March 25, 2015 in Suruc, Turkey; Carl Court/Getty Images

Even basic needs, like running water, go unmet.

Syrian refugees ask for water in Akcakale at the Turkish border near the Syrian town of Tal Abyad on June 13, 2015. Turkey said it was taking measures to limit the flow of Syrian refugees onto its territory; BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

While refugee camps provide a safe haven, many Syrians long to return home where they can raise their families in their own traditions. But between the violent regime and ISIS, it seems impossible for these displaced individuals to safely go back to Syria.

A Syrian refugee boy waits with family members to cross the Syria-Turkey border on June 22, 2015, as they return to the northern Syrian town of Tal Abyad, in Syria's Raqqa governorate, after Kurdish forces re-took control of the border-town; UYGAR ONDER SIMSEK/AFP/Getty Images

Instead, as refugees these Syrians they face disease, poverty, and statelessness — still a better fate than death in Syria.

A Kurdish refugee mother and son from the Syrian town of Kobani walk beside their tent in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc on the Turkish-Syrian border on October 19, 2014 in Sanliurfa, Turkey; Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images

The Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute created an informative website on the Syrian refugee crisis which includes this helpful timeline: