The United Nation’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, reports that the number of displaced people worldwide is at its highest ever, even surpassing post-WWII records. This is alarming compared with the devastation of the WWII when the world was trying to come to terms with one of the most destabilizing events in its history. By the end of 2015, the total number of displaced people reached 65.3 million. That translates to about one displaced person out of every 113 people on the planet. This is an increase of over 5.8 compared to the year before.
According to the UNHCR, nearly 1% of the globe’s population is listed as, internally displaced, asylum seeker, or refugee. One of the major causes of displacement is long-term conflicts. A keen example is the conflict in Afghanistan, which has made it the world’s number 1 refugee-producing country. Ever since the nation was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1978, things have never been the same again. The Soviet invasion was followed by a Taliban insurgency, and then a post 9-11 invasion by a western-led coalition. Syria is another situation where the civil war has contributed to nearly 5 million refugees in nearby Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq. South Sudan is also another example of a country that’s facing conflict, not to forget the Horn of Africa war haven of Somalia. These conflicts have directly contributed to tens of millions of refugees around the world.
More than half of all refugees come from Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia
Roughly 54 percent of all refugees in the world come from 3 nations: Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Currently, Syria has the largest number of externally displaced people, standing at 4.9 million, followed by Afghanistan at 2.7 million and Somalia at 1.1 million.
By the end of 2015, only a little more than 200,000 refugees returned to their countries of origin. 100,000 more were resettled in other countries. The United States accommodated the largest chunk, at 66,500. These numbers reflect displaced people from the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
Nearly 100,000 unaccompanied children
According to the UNHCR, about 98,400 of al asylum applications were made by unaccompanied or separated children, mostly from Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Syria. This is a worrying situation that highlights the need for increased focus on the refugee crisis around the world.
Top refugee host nations
Turkey is currently the nation hosting the largest number of externally displaced refugees, standing at 2.5 million. The country is closely followed by Pakistan at 1.6 million, then Lebanon at 1.1 million, Iran with 979,000, and Ethiopia. This is the second consecutive year that Turkey has ranked the number one refugee host in the world.