June 20: World Refugee Day

Updated report by UNHCR fot the World Refugee Day, 20 June 2014:

“By end-2013, 51.2 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. Some 16.7 million persons were refugees: 11.7 million under UNHCR’s mandate and 5.0 million Palestinian refugees registered by UNRWA. The global figure included 33.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and close to 1.2 million asylum-seekers. If these 51.2 million persons were a nation, they would make up the 26th largest in the world.”

“An estimated 10.7 million individuals were newly displaced due to conflict or persecution in 2013. This includes 8.2 million persons newly displaced within the borders of their own country, the highest figure on record. The other 2.5 million individuals were new refugees – the highest number of new arrivals since 1994.”

“During 2013, conflict and persecution forced an average of 32,200 individuals per day to leave their homes and seek protection elsewhere, either within the borders of their own country or in other countries. This compares to 23,400 in 2012 and 14,200 in 2011.”

“Statelessness is estimated to have affected at least 10 million persons in 2013. However, data captured by governments and communicated to UNHCR were limited to 3.5 million stateless individuals in 75 countries. ”

“More than 5.4 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate (46%) resided in countries where the GDP per capita was below USD 5,000.”

“Developing countries hosted 86 per cent of the world’s refugees, compared to 70 per cent 10 years ago. This is the highest value in more than two decades. The Least Developed Countries were providing asylum to 2.8 million refugees by year-end.”

“More than half (53%) of all refugees worldwide came from just three countries: Afghanistan (2.56 million), the Syrian Arab Republic (2.47 million), and Somalia (1.12 million).”

“Close to 1.1 million individuals submitted applications for asylum or refugee status in 2013. UNHCR offices registered a record high of 203,200 or 19 per cent of these claims. With 109,600 asylum claims, Germany was for the first time since 1999 the world’s largest recipient of new individual applications, followed by the United States of America (84,400) and South Africa (70,000). ”

“Some 25,300 asylum applications were lodged by unaccompanied or separated children in 77 countries in 2013, mostly by Afghan, South Sudanese, and Somali children. This was the highest number on record since UNHCR started collecting such data in 2006. ”

“Over the course of 2013, 414,600 refugees returned to their countries of origin. Two-thirds of these returned to the Syrian Arab Republic (140,800), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (68,400), or Iraq (60,900). This figure was the fourth lowest level of refugee returns in almost 25 years.”

“Children below 18 years constituted 50 per cent of the refugee population in 2013, the highest figure in a decade. ”

The report in various languages here:

http://unhcr.org/trends2013/

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