Some 7.6 million people became newly displaced due to conflict or persecution in 2012 — 1.1 million as refugees and 6.5 million as internally displaced people, said an UNHCR report on Wednesday. Developing countries hosted 81 percent of the world’s refugees, compared to 70 percent ten years ago, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says. The 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were providing asylum to 2.4 million refugees by year-end.
Pakistan was host to the largest number of refugees worldwide (1.6 million), followed by the Islamic Republic of Iran (868,200), Germany (589,700) and Kenya (565,000).
More than half of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate resided in countries where the GDP per capita was below US$ 5,000. The annual global trends report, titled ‘Displacement: The New 21st Century Challenge, says another 6.5 million people were newly displaced within the borders of their countries – the second highest figure of the past ten years and Syria is ‘a major new factor’ driving up refugee numbers.
During the year, conflict and persecution forced an average of 23,000 persons per day to leave their homes and seek protection elsewhere, either within the borders of their countries or in other countries.
The report says 55 percent of all refugees come from five countries:
Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria.
“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 UNHCR says the figures are based on data from the agency itself
as well as from governments and other NGOs.
Afghanistan remained the world’s biggest source of refugees, a
position it has now held for 32 years, with 95 percent of Afghan
refugees located in either Iran or Pakistan.
Somalis were the second biggest group of refugees in 2012, followed
by Iraqis. Syrians were the fourth biggest group.
The figures do not, however, reflect the additional one million
people who have fled Syria in the last six months.
The UN says if current trends persist, a further two million people
will have left Syria by the end of this year. In the next few days it
is expected to ask European countries to take at least some of them
in.
The report also says there has been a marked rise in displacement
from Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mali’s army, heavily backed by France, has been fighting Islamist and
ethnic Tuareg rebels this year. Islamists seized control of the north
of the country after a military coup last year.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, some 800,000 people have fled
since fighting broke out last year between government forces and the
M23 rebel movement.
Some 35.8 million persons were of concern to UNHCR by end 2012, the
second highest number on record.
UNHCR defines a protracted refugee situation as one in which 25,000
or more refugees of the same nationality have been in exile for five
years or longer in a given asylum country. Based on this definition,
it is estimated that some 6.4 million refugees were in a protracted
situation by the end of 2012.
These refugees were living in 25 host countries accounting for an
overall total of 30 protracted situations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
-With The Independent input
