By the end
of 2011:
An
estimated 43.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due
to conflict and persecution.
Among
refugees and people in refugee-like situations, children constituted
46 per cent of the population.
876,100
individual applications for asylum or refugee status were submitted
in 171 countries or territories.
The
number of internally displaced persons, benefitting from UNHCR’s
protection and assistance activities, was 15.5 million.
UNHCR identified some 3.5 million
stateless people in 64 countries. However, the actual number of
stateless persons worldwide was estimated at up to 12 million.
The
number of forcibly displaced people in the world continues to rise.
There are now more than 45 million refugees and internally displaced
people – the highest level in nearly 20 years. Last year alone,
someone was forced to abandon their home every four seconds.
War
remains the dominant cause, with the crisis in Syria a leading
instance of major displacement. More than half of all refugees
listed in a new report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees come
from just five war-affected countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq,
Syria and Sudan. Major new displacements have also been
occurring in Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Figures
give only a glimpse of this enormous human tragedy. Every day,
conflict tears apart the lives of thousands of families. They may be
forced to leave loved ones behind or become separated in the chaos of
war. Children suffer the most. Nearly half of all refugees are
below age 18, and a growing number are fleeing on their own.
Forced
displacement also has a significant economic, social and, at times,
political impact on the communities that provide shelter. There is a
growing and deep imbalance in the burden of hosting refugees, with
poor countries taking in the vast majority of the world’s uprooted
people. Developing countries host 81 per cent of the world’s
refugees, compared to 70 per cent a decade ago.
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