Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Gineva (Agenzia Fides) - Some 43.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2009, the highest number of people uprooted by conflict and persecution since the mid-1990s. At the same time, the number of refugees voluntarily returning to their home countries has fallen to its lowest level in twenty years. This emerged from the annual Report issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees 2009 Global Trends report, just released.
The report indicates that overall refugee numbers remained relatively stable at 15.2 million, two thirds of whom come under UNHCR's mandate while the other third fall under the responsibility of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Because of the growing resilience of conflict, more than half of the refugees under UNHCR's care are in protracted situations.
"Major conflicts such as those in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo show no signs of being resolved," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. "Conflicts that had appeared to be ending or were on the way to being resolved, such as in southern Sudan or in Iraq, are stagnating. As a result last year was not a good year for voluntary repatriation. In fact, it was the worst in twenty years."
According to the UNHCR report only 251,000 refugees went home in 2009, the lowest since 1990. This compares to a norm over the past decade of around a million people repatriating each year.
The number of people uprooted by conflict within their own country grew by four percent, to 27.1 million at the end of 2009. Persistent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Somalia mainly accounted for the increase in the overall figure.
The new report also notes that more and more refugees are living in cities, primarily in the developing world, contrary to the notion that refugees are inundating industrialized nations..
The number of new individual asylum claims worldwide grew to nearly one million, with South Africa receiving more than 222,000 new claims last year, making it the single largest asylum destination in the world.
The annual 2009 Global Trends report, which reviews statistical trends and patterns of conflict-related displacements, also covers stateless persons. The number of people known to be stateless at the end of 2009 was 6.6 million though unofficial estimates range as high as 12 million.
With resettlement – through which refugees hosted in one asylum state, usually in the developing world, are permanently relocated to another state, usually in the developed world – in 2009 UNHCR submitted a record 128,000 individuals for resettlement in third countries, the highest level in 16 years.
At the end of 2009, 112,400 refugees were admitted for resettlement by 19 countries, including the United States of America (79,900), Canada (12,500), Australia (11,100), Germany (2,100), Sweden (1,900), and Norway (1,400).
The main refugee groups resettled in 2009 were from Myanmar (24,800), Iraq (23,000), Bhutan (17,500), Somalia (5,500), Eritrea (2,500), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,500).(S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/6/2010)
