More people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time
since 1994, with the crisis in Syria having emerged as a major new
factor in global displacement.
UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, released on Wednesday, covers
displacement that occurred during 2012 based on data from governments,
NGO partners, and the UN refugee agency itself. The report shows that as
of the end of 2012, more than 45.2 million people were in situations of
displacement compared to 42.5 million at the end of 2011.
This includes 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers, and 28.8
million people forced to flee within the borders of their own
countries. The report does not include the rise in those forced from
their homes in Syria during the current year.
War remains the dominant cause. A full 55 percent of all refugees
listed in UNHCR's report come from just five war-affected countries:
Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. The report also charts
major new displacement from Mali, in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and from Sudan into South Sudan and Ethiopia.
"These truly are alarming numbers. They reflect individual suffering
on a huge scale and they reflect the difficulties of the international
community in preventing conflicts and promoting timely solutions for
them," said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and head
of UNHCR.
The report highlights worrisome trends, including the rate at which
people are being forced into situations of displacement. During 2012
some 7.6 million people became newly displaced, 1.1 million as refugees
and 6.5 million as internally displaced people. This translates to a new
refugee or internally displaced person every 4.1 seconds.
Major source countries of refugees, end 2012
Also evident is a continuing gap between richer and poorer countries
in hosting refugees. Of 10.5 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate -- a
further 4.9 million Palestinian refugees fall under the mandate of its
sister-agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency), half are hosted by
countries that have a per capita GDP of less than US$5,000. In all,
developing countries host 81 percent of the world's refugees compared to
70 percent a decade ago.
Children below age 18 make up 46 percent of all refugees. In
addition, a record 21,300 asylum applications submitted during 2012 were
from children who were unaccompanied or separated from their parents.
This is the highest number of unaccompanied or separated children that
UNHCR has recorded.
Global displacement for any year is the sum of new displacement,
existing unresolved displacement, and subtracting resolved displacement
such as people returning home or being allowed to settle permanently
outside their home country through citizenship or some other solution.
UNHCR works to help people who are forcibly displaced, including
through aid and immediate practical help, and by finding solutions to
their plight. The year 2012 saw an end to displacement for 2.7 million
people, including 526,000 refugees and 2.1 million internally displaced
people. Among those for whom solutions were found are 74,800 people
submitted by UNHCR for resettlement in third countries.
Last year saw little change from 2011 in the rankings of the world's
major refugee hosting countries. Pakistan continued to host more
refugees than any other nation (1.6 million), followed by Iran (868,200)
and Germany (589,700).
Major refugee hosting countries, end 2012
Afghanistan remained the world's top producer of refugees, a position
it has held for 32 years. On average, one out of every four refugees
worldwide is Afghan, with 95 percent located in Pakistan or Iran.
Somalia, another protracted conflict, was the world's second largest
refugee-producing nation during 2012, however there the rate of refugee
outflow slowed. Iraqis were the third largest refugee group (746,700
persons), followed by Syrians (471,400).
With people displaced inside their own countries, the figure of 28.8
million for 2012 is the highest level in more than two decades. This
includes 17.7 million who are being helped by the UN refugee agency.
UNHCR assistance to IDPs is not automatic but occurs at the request of
governments. Significant new internal displacement was seen in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.
The Global Trends report is UNHCR's leading annual report on the
state of forced displacement. Additional data is published annually in
the UN refugee agency's Statistical Yearbooks, and its reports on asylum
applications in industrialized nations. The new report, with
accompanying multimedia materials, can be downloaded at this web
address: http://unhcr.org/globaltrendsjune2013.
Source: http://www.unhcr.org/51c071816.html
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