Over 6000 Syrians fled to Jordan in May

Jordan has reported an influx of 6,236 registered Syrian refugees in the month of May alone – the highest number in a single month since the uprising began, the Jordan Times has said.. This brings the total of registered Syrian refugees in Jordan to more than 21,200 – though many others are unregistered. The paper says more than 115,000 Syrians have entered Jordan since March last year. Around half of those registered come from Homs and a quarter from Deraa near the Jordanian border. The UNHCR [the UN's refugee agency] points to increased outreach efforts and the recent dispatch of a mobile office to the border city of Ramtha as the main reasons behind the rise in registrations, which officials acknowledge is unrepresentative of the total number of Syrians in need in Jordan. Refugee status guarantees Syrians various rights and privileges under international law — as part of a growing realisation among the burgeoning community that they will be unable to return to their homeland as soon as previously believed. Syrians say they have decided to register in order to receive services such as cash assistance and greater access to healthcare and to receive priority status for resettlement to third party countries should the crisis in Syria devolve into civil war.