World Refugee Day Given Urgency by Arab Spring

June 17, 2011

Syrian refugees pray in a camp in Boynuyogun, Turkey, near the Syrian border, June 16, 2011

As the world marks UN Refugee Day on June 20, the number of people escaping violence across the Arab world is on the rise. Pro-democracy uprisings are being brutally suppressed in places like Libya and Syria, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee for an unknown future. Many of the refugees have little hope of ever returning to the place they once called home

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The Yayladagi refugee camp near Turkey's border with Syria is housed in the ruins of a former tobacco factory. There are around 3,500 refugees living here; more families are arriving by the day.

Its occupants fled in terror, leaving their homes and the land where they belong.

They are part of a wave of Syrians escaping the government crackdown on pro-democracy protests; the latest refugees of the Arab Spring.

June 20 is UN World Refugee Day. The thousands of people uprooted by the uprising and conflict across the Arab World make this year especially poignant, says Mans Nyberg of the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

"It's basically the last desperate move you make when you don't have any other option," said Nyberg. "When your home is burning, you have soldiers attacking your town, you just have to leave."

A sandstorm is brewing at the Shousha refugee camp on Tunisia's border with Libya.