A UN inquiry into the conflict in Syria has criticised the “global failure” to protect the country’s refugees, saying it has fuelled Europe’s migrant crisis.
Chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro urged the international community to act with “humanity and compassion” by creating legal channels of migration.
The inquiry’s latest report says 2,000 Syrians trying to reach Europe have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.
And the Syrian war, it warns, continues to intensify with no end in sight.
More than 240,000 people have been killed since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011.
A further four million Syrians have fled abroad and 7.6 million are displaced internally. Details