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Amid violence, Syrians race to borders
(CNN) -- The Syrian cab driver tolerated beatings, arrests and daily indignities
the country's 16 months of turmoil.
But after a rocket struck his house
the Daraa province city of Herak last week, the man and
family finally had enough.
The 29-year-
Sunni man, his wife, two young daughters and
relations left their homes on July 16 and embarked
a journey at night to the nearby Jordanian border.
He was
the more than 120,000 people who've fled
the neighboring countries -- Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan -- to escape the warring
Syria.
Syrian military stretched amid defection, fighting
The U.N. High Commissioner
Refugees, Antonio Guterres, on Friday expressed his growing concern
the dramatic flight.
"With the spread
deadly violence, I am gravely concerned
the thousands of Syrian civilians and refugees who have been forced
flee their homes," Guterres said.
The driver's story punctuates the misery
the restive nation, engulfed in what is now regarded as a civil
between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and
foes.
The cabbie is one of millions who have had to wrestle
whether they should brave staying or resort
leaving. The man, who answered questions from CNN
translators at the Bashabsheh resettlement camp
Jordan, didn't want his name used. But he cited many factors that led
what was a spontaneous trip to
border.
"It had been increasingly difficult to work
a driver due to stricter and more frequent road checkpoints and fear
random arrests and imprisonment," he said. "Everybody in Daraa is
targeted by Syrian security because the revolution started
."
The miseries of daily
hit home, he said. "Shopping for milk for the children was risky. Medical care
inaccessible."
He had
apprehended twice, once in June 2011 when he was arrested in his taxi
a checkpoint and beaten up while taking a man to visit his wife,
labor at a hospital. Two months later, he was arrested
waiting in his taxi for three men in a money-exchange shop. Security officers accused the three
arranging a demonstration. They arrested the men and the taxi
. The driver was beaten up.
He was scared about the psychological well-
of his daughter, growing anxious over the sounds
gunfire and war. He thinks that his participation
peaceful demonstrations may have put him at great
. He and his family, along
two of his sisters and their children, went to an assembly
the Free Syrian Army helps fleeing Syrians.
Women and children traveled
the border in vehicles and the men walked as the Jordanian army waited
them to arrive.
The cab driver said he and the
refugees regularly commiserate about life.
"The greatest difficulties are leaving houses, their country and
life. It is difficult to accept, but there is
choice because of the children," the driver said. "Seeking asylum is the worst
in life."
U.N. refugee officials, neighboring governments and non-
agencies have been working to help refugees, and the United Nations recently launched a drive
$193 million to help refugees. The plan has received
a quarter of the amount needed.
Syrians have
trickling out of the country
the conflict but those numbers have tripled
April, the U.N. refugee agency said.
The latest U.N. number is that as
Wednesday, 120,000 have sought protection but the refugee agency says the local governments count
more.
Adapted and abridged from: CNN, July 21, 2012.
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