Conflicts such as those in Ukraine or Sudan have radically increased the numbers in recent times, generating a flow not seen since World War II.
The total number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world reached 110 million, a record number fueled by recent conflicts such as those in Ukraine or Sudan, according to the annual report published this Wednesday by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The document, which is published as usual a few days before the celebration of World Refugee Day on June 20, also highlights an unparalleled annual increase since UNHCR was founded in 1951: it went from 89.3 million refugees and displaced persons at the end of 2021 to 108.4 million at the end of 2022, 19.1 million more.
In the first half of this year the figure has continued to grow to 110 million, mainly due to new crises such as the one in Sudan or deteriorating situations such as those in Burma (Myanmar)according to data presented at a press conference by the UNHCR high commissioner, the Italian Filippo Grandi.
“The rhetoric that many refugees flee to rich countries is very wrong: in reality it is the opposite,” explained Grandi, who stressed that 76% of those people take refuge in low- and middle-income countriesand the vast majority (70%) are also those who flee to nations neighboring their country of origin.
More than 35 million refugees in other countries
Of the 108.4 million who fled their homes in 2022 due to conflicts, natural disasters and other crisesUNHCR indicates that 62.5 million are internally displaced persons who remain in their country and 35.3 million refugees in other territories.
Added to this are 5.4 million asylum seekers and 5.2 million “persons in need of international protection”a special category of people not exactly with refugee status but in a very similar situation and that groups mainly Venezuelans established mostly in other countries of America.
“Conflicts start too quickly and seek to solve them too slowly. The result is devastation, displacement and anguish. for these millions of people uprooted by force,” Grandi said.
Türkiye is the country that hosts the most refugees (3.6 million, many of them Syrians), followed by Iran with 3.4 million (mostly from Afghanistan) and Colombia with 2.5 million mainly Venezuelan refugees.
At the same time, the country from which more people have fled to others as refugees is Syria with 6.5 millionfollowed by Ukraine and Afghanistan with 5.6 million each (UNHCR came to count up to 8 million Ukrainian refugees in previous months, although it has recently corrected this figure downward).
In fourth position is Venezuela (5.4 million) and then South Sudan (2.2 million) and Burma (1.2 million), according to statistics from the end of 2022, where the nearly half a million refugees caused by two months of conflict still did not appear. in sudan.
Africa, main source and destination
90% of refugees and internally displaced persons come from developing countries, recalls a report that places sub-Saharan Africa as the main region for both origin (27.2 million) and destination (25.3 million) of these people.
Europe is the origin of 9.1 million and the destination of 17.3 million, while 6.1 million refugees and displaced persons originate from America, but the continent is in turn a host country for 6.7 million.
UNHCR highlights in the report that the invasion of Ukraine generated the fastest flow of refugees since World War IIequaling in just twelve months the exodus caused by the first four years of civil war in Syria.
On the plus side, some 6 million people (339,000 refugees and 5.7 million internally displaced persons) were able to return to their homes in 2022mainly in Ethiopia after the ceasefire reached in Tigray but also in countries such as Burma, Syria, Mozambique or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Grandi highlighted the generosity of many host communities towards refugees and displaced persons, but stated that so far UNHCR has only received a third of the funds it needs by 2023.
asylum applications
The report also indicated that The United States remains the country that registered the most asylum applications last year (730,400), followed by far by Germany (217,800), Costa Rica (129,500) and Spain (118,800).
The main countries of origin of asylum seekers were Venezuela (264,000), Afghanistan (208,500), Cuba (194,700) and Nicaragua (165,800), according to UNHCR figures.