Most of the world’s almost 53 million refugees come from Asia and are sheltered in the Middle East
Rome (AsiaNews) – After refugees stormed trains at a Budapest railway station, and little Aylan died in Turkey, the European Union remains caught up in quandary over how to handle the influx of thousands of refugees pressing at its south and southeastern borders after crossing the Mediterranean or travelling through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary.
EU member states have different positions. Some would like to see refugees distributed across Europe by changing entry rules; others want to tighten their borders, fearing an "invasion".
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres today proposed that the European Union accept at least 200,000 asylum seekers, with mandatory participation of all EU member states and refugees distributed fairly among the latter. Despite claims that 200,000 refugees would be an economic burden, most refugees are in Asia, not Europe.
There are some 52.9 million refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless people in the world this year. As one might expect, Syria provides the largest contingent, followed by Colombia and Iraq. One third of refugees are in Middle East, not Europe or the United States.
In a article published yesterday by French daily Le Monde based on data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)*, we can see a rising trend in the number of refugees, with a spike in 2005 when the number goes from 19.4 million refugees to 52.9 million at the beginning of 2015.
This increase reflects the rise in armed conflicts around the world. According to the UNHCR, there are at least 14 ongoing conflicts this year: eight in Africa (Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Burundi), three in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Yemen), three in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Pakistan), and one in Europe (Ukraine).
In addition, the effects of civil wars continue to be felt in places like Colombia and Nepal.
Contrary to what some might think, most of the world’s 52.9 million refugees are not in developed countries and certainly not in Europe, but in the developing world.
The largest group of refugees comes from Syria, still torn apart by a civil war that has lasted so far four years. Earlier this year, the UN said that at least 11.7 of Syria’s 23 million people are refugees at home or abroad.
The second largest group is in Colombia. Years of fighting between the country’s armed forces and rebels have forced more than 6 million people from their homes, claiming the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians. In this case, most refugees have remained in the country.
Iraqis are in third place, with 4.1 million refugees, more than a third (1.5 million) internally displaced. They include 130,000 Christians from Mosul and 500,000 Yazidis who fled to Kurdistan.
Some of the largest source countries also shelter many refugees (Syria, Colombia, Iraq), the Democratic Republic of Congo (3 million refugees), Pakistan (2.8 million), and Sudan (2.4 million).
Overall, the Middle East has the highest number of refugees in the world (17.2 million), especially in Turkey (1.6 million, or 223 per 10,000 inhabitants) and Lebanon (1.2 million, or 2,587 every 10,000 inhabitants).
* The United Nations has collected such data since 1951.
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07/02/2008
