MONTEVIDEO: Forced to flee the war raging in his native Syria, 22-year-old Hussein Al Fleig Al Ali first tried neighboring Lebanon before discovering he had more opportunity in far-away Uruguay.
While most of the more than three million refugees who have fled the Syrian conflict have flooded into neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Turkey, a growing number are defying language barriers and distance to try their luck in Latin America.
The three-and-a-half-year-old war has stretched refugee camps in Syria's neighbors past capacity and saturated the region with more refugees than it can handle.
Europe and the United States have meanwhile set a high bar for asylum that holds many refugees at bay.
But far-off, unknown Latin America can offer a way out for Syrians desperate to escape the war.
"Lebanon is a bad situation for Syrians. Very complicated. But the Uruguayan government has prepared everything, living, food, jobs, to get a good life in the future," said Al Ali, a student who now works as a translator for the presidential office on human rights in his adopted home.
About 1,300 Syrians now have official refugee status in Latin America, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) -- a tiny fraction of the total, but one that looks set to grow.
Numerous other Syrians have arrived in the region by their own means, though it is difficult to know how many.
"Latin America has a long tradition of taking in asylum seekers," said Ana Lia Conde, a UNHCR official in Argentina.
That is due in part to the region's own turbulent history.
Thousands of Latin Americans who fled conflict or dictatorship in the 20th century found refuge elsewhere in the region.
Latin America also has a record of providing safe haven to those fleeing conflicts in other parts of the world. The region took in Spaniards escaping Francisco Franco's regime and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
Countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile also have long-standing Syrian communities, an important network for the current generation of asylum-seekers.
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