As chaos and conflict seem to be the tragic trend in many parts of the world, a sad parallel follows that large numbers of people are fleeing and being displaced by the violence. The numbers are stunningly high and climbing according to the UNHCR: 108 million people were displaced at the end of last year as a result of persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations.
In its annual Global Trends Report for last year, UNHCR presents a sobering view of the human cost of conflict, tragedy and humanitarian disaster. The report overviews the 108 million displaced people; 35 million refugees, 62.5 million internally displaced persons (IDP) and 5.4 million asylum seekers.
Let's explain the complicated terms for a moment as to who's generally labelled "refugees". The UN defines a refugee as "someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion". Afghans, Syrians and Ukrainians are among this group.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated that the consequence of conflicts creates "devastation, displacement and anguish for each of the millions of people forcibly uprooted from their homes".
Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide at 3.6 million people mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Colombia has 2.5 million, mostly Venezuelans, while Germany shelters 2.1 million mostly Afghans and Syrians. The US was the world's largest recipient of new individual applications at 730,000 last year, according to the UN. Germany was second with 218,000.
According to the UNHCR, Syrians comprise the largest number of refugees worldwide with 6.5 million, followed by Ukraine at 5.7 million, Afghanistan at 5.7 million and Venezuela 5.4 million. Significantly last year, the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, violence and human rights violations grew by 21% or 19 million people. That growth is equal to the population of the Netherlands or New York state.
UNHCR advises that last year, the total number of refugees worldwide rose by a record 35% or 8.9 million reaching 34.6 million. The surge was largely due to people fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion last year. Indeed the number of refugees throughout Europe rose from 7 million in 2021 to 12 million last year!
IDPs present a totally different challenge. These are people forced to move because of calamity but are still living in their own country; such as 5.9 million Ukrainians or 4.5 million inside Yemen. There are about 57 million IDPs globally, ranging from Ethiopia to Sudan and the DRC.
If there's a silver lining in the saga, it is that during the past year, some 5.7 million IDPs have returned to their homes; equally, 339,000 refugees have gone back to their home countries.
Last year, nearly 2.9 million individual asylum applications were registered in 162 countries worldwide; this is the highest number of individual asylum applications ever recorded, according to UNHCR, a 68% increase from 2021. The asylum cases have surged with nationals of countries from Latin America/Caribbean, notably Venezuela (264,000), Cuba (194,000), Nicaragua (165,000) and Haiti (73,000).
Compared to 2021, the US saw a three-fold asylum application surge, with 730,000 last year. These are the official numbers which simply do not begin to reflect the chaos, confusion and calamity at the US' porous southern border with Mexico, which has been flooded with largely economic migrants for the last two years. Despite the valiant efforts of the US Border Patrol to maintain control and process lawful crossings, the system is overwhelmed. Last year, 2.7 million people crossed illegally, surpassing the previous year's record by more than a million, according to US Customs and Border Protection. That's officially so.
The human trafficking rings operating with near impunity in neighbouring Mexico have deluged the US southern border with vulnerable and often indentured people who are entering the country largely "off the books", with many coming into a clandestine netherworld. Since 2021 about 5 million people have illegally entered the US.
Refugee resettlement does take place in a legal and orderly way; Canada received the largest number last year, accepting 47,000 people. The US legally resettled 29,000 people last year, primarily from the Congo, Syria and Myanmar.
The Biden Administration has failed to control the southern US border effectively, thus perpetuating this human tragedy which begs to be solved.
John J Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defence issues. He is the author of 'Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China'.
