Ahead of World Refugee Day yesterday, the United Nations released new data showing that the global refugee crisis remained generally stable in 2020. While the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cross border migration and displacement remains unclear, UNHCR data shows that the number of arrivals of new refugees and asylum seekers was sharply down in most regions with 1.5 million fewer arrivals than had been expected in non-pandemic circumstances. Nevertheless, 82.4 million people remain displaced across the world as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. That total includes 26.4 million refugees and 68% of them come from just five countries - Syria (6.7 million), Venezuela (4 million), Afghanistan (2.2 million) and South Sudan (2.2 million) and Myanmar (1.1 million).
In 2020, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen continued to be displacement hotspots and fresh unrest displaced nearly three quarters of a million people in Africa's Sahel region. The outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan also had a devastating impact on the civilian population while hundreds of thousands of people were forced to escape violence in Northern Mozambique. When it comes to displaced persons, Turkey continues to host the highest absolute number with just under four million, the majority of whom (92%) are Syrian. Colombia has the second-highest total with 1.7 million displaced Venezuelans within its borders while Germany comes third with nearly 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers hosted.
Comparing the number of displaced people with a host country's population is another way to gauge the scale of major global refugee crises. For many years, Lebanon hosted the largest number of refugees per 1,000 of its inhabitants but it has now been surpassed by the island of Aruba as a result of the situation in Venezuela. At the end of 2020, the small nation was hosting 159 displaced persons per 1,000 of its inhabitants. Lebanon comes second, hosting 128 refugees per 1,000 of its population while another island nation impacted by the crisis in Venezuela, Curaçao, rounds off the top-three with 102 displaced people hosted per 1,000 of its inhabitants.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
