War, violence and persecution worldwide are causing more people than ever to be forcibly displaced, according to a report published today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Global Trends report, the organization’s major annual survey of the state of displacement, says that at the end of 2016 there were 65.6 million people forcibly displaced worldwide – some 300,000 more than a year earlier.
This total represents an enormous number of people needing protection worldwide.
Syria is the biggest producer of refugees
The figure of 65.6 million comprises three important components. First is refugee numbers, which at 22.5 million are the highest ever seen. Of these, 17.2 million come under the responsibility of UNHCR, and the remainder are Palestinian refugees registered with our sister-organization UNRWA.
Second is displacement of people inside their own countries, whose numbers were 40.3 million at the end of 2016 compared to 40.8 million a year earlier. Syria, Iraq, and the still very significant displacement inside Colombia were the biggest internal displacement situations, nonetheless the problem of internal displacement is a worldwide one and accounts for almost two thirds of the global forced displacement total.
Third is asylum seekers, people who have fled their country and are seeking international protection as refugees. As of the end of 2016 the number of people seeking asylum globally was 2.8 million.
One in every 113 people worldwide is displaced
More than 10 million became displaced in 2016
12 million Syrians displaced
By population, Syria still accounts for the biggest numbers of displaced people overall, with 12 million people (almost two thirds of the population) either displaced internally or having fled abroad as refugees or asylum seekers.
UNHCR estimates that at least 10 million people were without a nationality or at risk of statelessness at the end of 2016. However, data recorded by governments and communicated to UNHCR were limited to 3.2 million stateless people in 75 countries.
Politicization of asylum issues
Global Trends is a statistical assessment of forced displacement, and as such a number of key developments in the refugee world in 2016 are not captured. These include increased politicization of asylum issues in many countries, and growing restrictions on access to protection measures in some regions, but also positive developments such as the historic summits on Refugees and Migrants in September 2016, the landmark New York Declaration that followed, the new all-of-society approach to managing displacement being pioneered under the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, and the enormous generosity of host countries and donor governments alike towards refugees and other displaced populations.
UNHCR produces its Global Trends report annually based on its own data, the data it receives from its partner the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, and data it receives from governments.
