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DID
YOU KNOW?
How many people are displaced?
At the end of 2007, the number of people under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was 25.1 million, an increase from 20.8 million at the end of 2005. People under UNHCR’s responsibility include 11.4 million refugees and 13.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) – up from 6.8 million IDPs at the end of 2005. Persons of concern to UNHCR include refugees and asylum seekers, returnees, stateless persons, certain groups of IDPs and others not falling into the above categories.
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) estimates that the total number of refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 2007 totalled 14 million. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) numbers the total world conflict-related IDP population at 26 million as of December 2007. In total, UNHCR estimates that the total world population of refugees and IDPs was 67 million by the end of 2007.
Refugees and asylum seekers
According to UNHCR, in 2007, the greatest number of refugees are from the following countries: Iraq (2,279,247), Afghanistan (1,909,911), Sudan (523,032), Somalia (455,357), Burundi (375,727), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (370,374), Former Palestine (335,219), Vietnam (327,776), Turkey (221,939), Eritrea (208,743) and Myanmar (Burma) (191,256). The highest number of claimants for asylum originated from Iraq (52,000), Somalia (46,100), Eritrea (36,000), Colombia (23,200), the Russian Federation (21,800), Ethiopia (21,600) and Zimbabwe (20,700). USCRI estimates that the ratio of refugee population to total population is the highest in the following territories and states: West Bank and Gaza (1:2), Jordan (1:9), Syria (1:11), Lebanon (1:12), Chad (1:37), Ecuador (1:50), Kuwait (1:55), Iran (1:71), Congo-Brazzaville (1:86), Tanzania (1:89), Pakistan (1:90), Saudi Arabia (1:96) and Serbia (1:97). There are an estimated 100,000 to 400,000 North Korean refugees living in neighbouring countries, but the numbers are very difficult to gauge as UNHCR has no access to this population and many North Korean refugees live in hiding in host states. North Korean refugees are systematically deported from China back to North Korea under the premise that they are economic migrants.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
As IDPs fall outside the core mandate of UNHCR, its statistics on IDP populations are very considerable estimates. UNHCR reported that by the end of 2007, there were a total of 51 million IDPs, 26 million of whom were displaced due to conflict, and 25 million displaced due to natural disaster. In contrast, IDMC estimates that by the end of 2007, the global IDP population was 26 million. By region, IDMC reports that in 2007, there were 12.7 million IDPs in Africa, 4.2 million in the Americas, 3.1 million in Asia, 2.5 million in Europe and 3.5 million in the Middle East. UNHCR indicates that Colombia has “one of the largest IDP populations in the world”, and Iraq’s IDP population grew from 1.8 to 2.4 million over the course of 2007. IDMC indicates that Sudan has 5.8 million IDPs, Colombia has up to 4 million, and Iraq has 2.5 million. IDMC has identified the following countries as those constituting the “worst displacement situations”: Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Colombia, DRC, Ethiopia, Indonesia (West Papua), Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Due to human rights abuses and severe malnutrition in North Korea, there are potentially IDPs numbering in the millions. Countries in which national authorities provided very limited or no humanitarian assistance for IDPs in 2007 include Bangladesh, Burma, Israel (occupied Palestinian territories), Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. In comparison, the following governments made efforts in support of their internally displaced populations: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Georgia, Lebanon, Liberia, Turkey and Uganda.
For further information, download the full PDF document relating to the above text with tables, references and links to external websites. This document will also be subject to regular updates as situations and statistics change.
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