A/HRC/30/48 E. The displaced 81. The brutality of the conflict continues to generate unprecedented levels of displacement. With more than 4 million refugees and some 7.6 million IDPs, half of the Syrian Arab Republic’s population has now been uprooted. 82. Many Syrians IDPs now live in official or makeshift camps that dot the Syrian Arab Republic’s borders. Others have taken up residence in towns and villages where they have family ties, or where they have been able to find shelter in a place of relative safety. 83. The majority of the displaced are women and children. This is a consequence of their being able to move more freely through checkpoints, save for those areas controlled by ISIS. Many have been repeatedly displaced. Some have fled bombardments or ground attacks. Others moved in search of family members and better living conditions, including employment and more readily available – or affordable – food and fuel. 84. For those who have moved into towns and villages, many have been taken in by residents. Fellow Syrians remain the primary providers of assistance to IDPs. However, in some localities, such as Azaz (Aleppo), the sheer number of IDPs seeking safety has increased tensions between them and residents as the growing demand for basic supplies inflates local prices. 85. In makeshift camps, the internally displaced receive little or no support. Shelters are haphazardly built and often fail to keep out the elements. Health services and education for children are largely absent. In official camps, sudden influxes of IDPs fleeing violence may overwhelm services, as reportedly occurred in camps in Idlib following clashes in April and May between Government forces and anti-Government armed groups fighting alongside Jabhat Al-Nusra. 86. Camps are often places of insecurity. Concern for the safety of female family members, together with the cost of caring for large families, has led to an increase in early marriages in the camps. This has follow-on consequences for the education, health and life prospects of the Syrian Arab Republic’s young women and girls. For children living as IDPs, they – as with children living as refugees outside of the Syrian Arab Republic – demonstrate clear signs of trauma. Repeated exposure to violence, loss of family, multiple displacements and instability have had a particular deleterious impact on the lives of Syrian children. 87. Thousands of Syrians place their lives in the hands of smugglers and traffickers, attempting perilous journeys in unseaworthy boats across the Mediterranean. More than 2,000 Syrian refugees have drowned in desperate efforts to reach safety in Europe since 2011. 88. The global failure to protect Syrian refugees is now translating into a crisis in Southern Europe. The responsibility for the protection of the human rights of these refugees is not being adequately shared or shouldered. Genuine international cooperation and burden-sharing is imperative to address the humanitarian crisis. 89. It is essential that countries comply with the principle of non-refoulement and respect their obligations under international customary and conventional law, particularly the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and other relevant regional human rights instruments. 12