The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that millions more Syrians may flee the deadly violence by foreign-backed militants in their homeland and head to Europe if the crisis in the Arab state does not come to end.

“There could be millions and millions more refugees leaving Syria and ultimately going to the European Union (EU) and beyond,” said Peter Salama, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa on Friday.

He added that almost eight million people were displaced within Syria, which has been grappling with violence fueled by foreign-backed Takfiri terror groups since March 2011.

The fund also urged all EU member states to fully protect refugee children, adding that children already make up a quarter of all asylum seekers in Europe so far this year.

“Protecting refugee and migrant children from harm, especially as winter approaches, has to be at the very heart of Europe’s response,” said Yoka Brandt, UNICEF deputy executive director.

The UNICEF official emphasized the child refugees’ right to “protection and to dignity,” saying, “Now is the time to make those rights a reality.”

Earlier this week, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) voiced alarm over deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Syria, saying the conflict in the Middle Eastern state has forced thousands of Syrians to risk their lives on perilous journeys to get to Europe.

The UN refugee agency further said a large number of some 4.08 million Syrian refugees already in neighboring countries live outside proper camps. Only 12 per cent of refugees across the region live in formal refugee camps.

According to the UNHCR, over 380,000 asylum seekers, about half of them Syrians, have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, a figure “expected to continue rising rapidly over the coming weeks and months.”

Earlier in the day, the UN announced that 7,600 refugees, mostly from violence-ravaged Syria, entered Macedonia from Greece between 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Wednesday and 6 p.m. on Thursday.