Syrian family displaced to Qaa in Lebanon. Credit: Freedom House via Flickr
Humanitarian organizations have an unfortunate addiction to the word 'unprecedented'. Whenever a new crisis erupts and large numbers of people are forced to abandon their country, the major aid agencies will inevitably launch fund-raising appeals, saying “please help us to respond to this unprecedented emergency.”
While the word ‘unprecedented’ has become overused and thereby devalued, we should have little hesitation in using it in relation to the Syrian refugee crisis, which is unprecedented – or at least unusual – in a number of ways.
