On Thursday, June 12, the ministers of each of Germany’s 16 states agreed to a plan proposed by Germany’s Foreign Minister last month to accept an additional 1o,000 Syrian refugees into Germany.
In May 2013, Germany agreed to grant 5,000 Syrians asylum, and that number doubled by year’s end. The latest commitment of an additional 10,000 doubled the official number again.
Thus far fleeing Syrians have to apply for a visa, but even Syrians who enter Germany without approved visas are currently allowed to stay. Germany is not deporting anyone back to Syria while the war continues.
Syria’s tiny neighboring country of Lebanon has absorbed nearly one million Syrian refugees since the war began. Following Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt are the countries to which the most Syrians have fled their war-torn country.