The exodus of refugees from Syria continues to rise, at press time reaching 2.2 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. On Oct. 1, High Commissioner Antonia Guterres said that the refugee crisis is pushing beyond the UNHCR's capability to properly process refugees.

"UNHCR and its partners are doing everything possible to respond, but we are stretched to the limits by this combination of an emergency unparalleled in the recent past, and the persistence of other crises around the world," Guterres said at the UNHCR’s annual meeting.

Neighboring governments are also challenged by the rising exodus of refugees. As nearly one million Syrian refugees — including unprocessed refugees — have fled to Lebanon, the Lebanese government is struggling to accommodate them. In this country with a population of 4.4 million, refugees now make up almost a quarter of Lebanon's total population.

Sophomore Hussein Karzoumi’s father was a refugee from the 1948 Palestine War and grew up in a refugee camp in Beurj Al Barajneh, Beirut, for 17 years until he moved to Sweden.

With no running water, scarce electricity and cramped living spaces, refugees also faced difficulty attaining citizenship. His father left school by the fifth grade to work and look after the family.

“He had a dream to move to Europe, not because he knew what was there, but because he wanted to leave the Middle East and the refugee camp,” said Karzoumi.

Karzoumi said that refugees were also in physical danger as Israelis were still fighting with Lebanese militant groups. One of his aunts was killed in a 1982 bombing by Israeli and Lebanese groups when the family was still living in the refugee camp.

Even after Karzoumi's father had moved to the United States, earned a Ph.D. and visited a Lebanese university to ask about a teaching position in 2006, he was told that he would be paid less because of his Palestinian background.

Difficult living conditions, hostile treatment and threats of violence continue to be a problem for refugees in Lebanon today.

Several news sources this month have reported on the poor living condition inside these Lebanese refugee camps. Al-Monitor, a Middle East-based news portal, reported the tensions between Hezbollah and Hamas groups in Lebanon that manifest violently in the south of Beirut where many refugee camps are located. EuroNews reported that the Lebanese people's hostility toward refugees is due to divisions in Lebanese society over the legitimacy of Bashar al-Assad's regime, erupting in violence through bombings and disrupting life in Lebanon.

Al Jazeera America reported accounts of Syrian refugees in Lebanon who refuse to sign up with the UNHCR for processing, despite the promise of aid. One woman said that she refused to ask for help because the UNHCR might send her photograph and information back to the Syrian government.

"It seems that many people don't want to see the U.N. in these cases," Karzoumi said. "[NGOs are run by] all these people who feel like they have a burden to take care of the world, [who] come from Western countries and claim that they will resolve any issues or conflicts that exist. Would you believe them? I don't think so."

Michael Austin, who works with refugees as youth program manager for Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, said that NGOs still struggle with the reputation of internal corruption. He referred to the Bantus, a marginalized Somali population who came to refugee camps in Columbus, Ohio in the ‘90s.

“[The Bantus] were being widely discriminated [against] in terms of food distribution and resettlement paperwork,” said Austin. “There were widespread reports of corruption within the [United Nations] and the camps of identities being stolen from the Bantus and sold … A lot of it was corruption within U.N. workers.”

Many NGOs and governments sympathize with what they see as a burden for Lebanon. On Sept. 30, the UNHCR called for the international community to share the burden of receiving Syrian refugees. On Oct. 3, the Australian government agreed to resettle 500 Syrian refugees. These gestures may not be enough, for developing countries still host 80 percent of refugees around the world.

“As I address you today, more people have been forced to flee their homes than at any time since the Rwandan genocide [in 1993]," Guterres said at the UNHCR meeting. "If refugees and internally displaced persons were a nation, they would make up one of the world's 30 biggest countries."

Guterres spoke of a more pronounced refugee identity that is emerging around the world. He applied the term “globalized refugee populations” to people who fled from the same country and resettled in different countries around the world.

Junior Lan Duong knew of a more positive refugee experience from her mother, Ida Tran, who fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1985. Vietnamese boat people resettled mostly in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan.

"When we were in the camps, UNHCR was ... like God to us," said Tran.

“There was a Red Crescent volunteer lady," said Tran. "She was Indian, so beautiful, dark skin and short, permed hair. She was about mid-20s. She sneaked her own food to give to kids with no family like us. She did not like the camp boss."

However, Tran said that the Malaysian government was less helpful than NGOs.

"[The government] took the money from the [United Nations], but they had done very little to help us to live in better conditions," said Tran. "The camps administrative tried not to let any of us die or [suffer a] grave illness, but they had very harsh rules for daily life."

Freshman Riaz Howey’s mother was a religious refugee of Iran. She was studying abroad in the Philippines when the 1979 Iranian revolution broke out. She found herself unable to re-enter Iran as she belonged to a minority faith that was antagonistic to many Muslims in Iran.

"My mum was one of the first religious refugees in New Zealand," said Howey.

Howey said that it took a long time for him to process what his mother had been through. It did not really strike him until a few months ago when he saw an exhibit in New Zealand that paid homage to the plight of Iranian refugees.