Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
New York (Agenzia Fides) – June 20 is World Refugee Day, declared by the United Nations. The annual Day coincides with a particularly delicate time in the conditions of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons throughout the world, and with the number of people affected on the rise, after several years of relative stability. This was what the Global Trends Report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has shown.
The new statistics show that at the end of 2007, there were 11.4 million refugees outside their countries and 26 million others displaced internally by conflict or persecution, 13.7 million of whom are assisted by the UNHCR. After a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, there have now been two years of increases. In light of this increase in a negative sense, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has in recent days expressed the United Nations’ concern for the situation that is once again becoming serious.
Among the parts of the world that have most contributed to the refugee crisis are Iraq and Afghanistan, where ongoing conflicts have led a growing number of people to flee the country. Among the problems mentioned by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are several global emergencies that have had a direct influence on the displacement of large masses of people. In this sense, among the global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future are: the conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots, bad governance in many countries, extreme rise in prices that has hit the poor the hardest and generates instability in many places, climate-induced environmental degradation that also leads to an increased competition for scarce resources.
The latest reports from the UN show that Afghans (around 3 million, mainly in Pakistan and Iran) and Iraqis (around 2 million, mainly in Syria and Jordan) account for nearly half of all refugees under UNHCR’s care worldwide in 2007. They are followed by Colombians (552,000) in a refugee-like situation, Sudanese (523,000) and Somalis (457,000).
The increase in the number of refugees in 2007 was a result of the volatile situation in Iraq. The top refugee-hosting countries in 2007 included Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Germany and Jordan. Among the internally displaced, the report cites up to 3 million people in Colombia ( figure used by Constitutional Court); 2.4 million in Iraq; 1.3 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; 1.2 million in Uganda; and 1 million in Somalia. In all, the number of refugees assisted by the UNHCR in 23 countries is 13.7 million.
Last year, some 647,200 individual applications for asylum or refugee status were submitted to governments and UNHCR offices in 154 countries last year – a 5 percent increase from 2006 and the first rise in four years. According to the report, this is due to the large number of Iraqis seeking asylum in Europe. By nationality, the individual claims included Iraqis (52,000), Somalis (46,100), Eritreans (36,000), Colombians (23,200); Russian Federation (21,800); Ethiopians (21,600) and Zimbabweans (20,700). The countries where asylum was most frequently sought were: the United States, South Africa, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Greece. The report expresses a concern over the widely varying recognition rates among the asylum countries.
A still yet-to-be-resolved matter is the fact that most refugees are still hosted in their own regions of origin, not in the industrialized world. Nearly 731,000 refugees were able to go home under voluntary repatriation programs in 2007, including to Afghanistan (374,000), Southern Sudan (130,700), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (60,000), Iraq (45,400) and Liberia (44,400). In addition, an estimated 2.1 million internally displaced people went home over the course of 2007.
2007 also saw a decline of some 3 million people who had been considered stateless, primarily as a result of new legislation in Nepal providing citizenship to approximately 2.6 million people, as well as changes in Bangladesh. There are an estimated 12 million stateless people worldwide, however more data is needed. (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 19/6/2008)
