“As of last week, it was estimated that 1 million people may have been forced to flee inside the country since the conflict began…….Hundreds of frightened refugees have called the hotline and outreach volunteers in the past 24 hours, reporting direct threats and fears of being caught up in the fighting.”-Melissa Fleming, UNHCR

20 July 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is claiming that hundreds of thousands of Syrians have left their county.

UNHCR officials are using estimates, but claim that as many as 180,000 people have fled Syria in the past 48 hours!

However, UNHCR admitted they don’t know for sure, they are actually guesstimating using local government estimations. For a specific example, UNHCR officials said as many as 30,000 people fled into Lebanon, but then also stated that the number could be as low as 8,000.  That’s a big variance! 

The United Nations says it will try to get officials on the ground to get a more exact count: “In consultation with government authorities, UNHCR and its partners are now in the field verifying numbers and assessing the profile and needs of newly arrived Syrians…”-UNHCR press release

If the UN does not have people on the ground now, documenting the refugees coming out of Syria, then how can the UN justify reporting these huge refugee numbers?