How many? On World Refugee Day, June 20th, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) released an estimate that, globally, 45.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes due to conflict and/or violence. That is equal to the population of South Korea or Colombia, three million more than in 2012 and the highest total number since 1994. Of these, 15.4 million people are refugees forced to flee from their countries to seek safety in another country, most often a neighboring one; 7.6 million of them were uprooted last year alone. In addition, there are 28.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were forced to flee from their homes but have been able to remain in their own countries. Nearly another million have officially become “asylum seekers” in another country; they are seeking legal recognition of their status as refugees and the right to legally reside in the host country for an indefinite period.
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, explains that these alarming numbers mean that “each day, another 23,000 people begin to search for safety from harm or persecution – the world has a new refugee or internally displaced person every 4.1 seconds.” The high number of refugees reflects the failure of the international community to prevent or halt armed conflict.
From which countries do the refugees flee? The UNHCR reports that, at this time, the largest number comes from five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. However, a steady stream of refugees also flee from ongoing situations, such as the endless violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo or from the violently oppressive governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Significant numbers also flee from Myanmar, Colombia and Vietnam.
A BURDEN ON POOR COUNTRIES
Where do they go? At least, initially, most flee to a neighboring country, and often these are relatively poor or overcrowded countries that cannot provide adequate assistance. Pakistan, Iran, Kenya, the DR Congo, Sudan and Yemen are hosts to many refugees. Eighty percent of the world’s refugees are staying in developing countries. A big number of refugees from Darfur and Mali are in Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries and one with its own armed conflicts. Kenya is host to the largest refugee camp in the world; the Dadaab camp near the border of Somalia may hold a half-million Somali refugees. Kenya is also host to many refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Refugees place an enormous economic burden on poor host countries. For example, in 2011, Pakistan was host to 1.9 million refugees. That comes down to 710 refugees for each U.S. dollar of its per capita Gross Domestic Product.
The conflict in Syria constitutes the worst crisis at this moment; 1.6 million Syrian refugees are crowding into Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Jordan is host to roughly half a million Syrian refugees. The Al-Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan is now the second largest in the world, with 160,000 total occupants, at least 60% of them under the age of 18. On average, 66 babies are born in that camp every day. Before the upsurge of the armed conflict in Syria, Jordan already had three quarter of a million refugees, mostly Palestinians and Iraqis, and now has one and a quarter million. Tiny Jordan is expected to be host to two million refugees by the end of 2013. The presence of these refugees places an enormous strain on Jordan’s resources for healthcare, education, sanitation, etc. Jordan has already spent nearly a billion U.S. dollars to give minimal assistance to the flood of refugees from Syria alone.
Where do the refugees stay in the host countries and who assist them? A lot of the refugees have no other option than to stay in officially-designated refugee camps where a minimum of food, water and temporary shelter is provided. Sometimes, these are desperate survival situations of continuous boredom with little opportunity for education and none for employment. The UNHCR often sets up and runs these camps, but the UNHCR depends on voluntary donations and is chronically underfunded in proportion to the number and needs of refugees.
Various humanitarian organizations seek to assist the refugees in these camps and elsewhere with healthcare or education but, in most cases, their relatively meager resources are no match to the enormity of the needs that they confront. Even when the host governments have the best of intentions, they often lack adequate resources to even provide proper documentation to the refugees present in their countries or to do so in a timely manner.
DESPERATE TO ESCAPE
It is no wonder that many refugees are desperate to escape from these camps. Many African refugees have fled from camps in Kenya, Zambia and Bostwana to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) to seek asylum in the hope of finding jobs and opportunities for education; about 20% of the world’s asylum seekers are in RSA. Although RSA permits freedom of movement, the overall situation of refugees is hardly better than elsewhere.
The RSA government provides temporary documents to asylum seekers, but is very slow to process asylum applications. Often, for many years, refugees must travel to the city where they first registered as asylum seekers to renew their provisional permits on a monthly or quarterly basis. It may take three, five or more years before their applications are processed. If they are officially recognized as refugees, they are then given temporary residence permits. Meanwhile, without permanent documents, it is almost impossible to find work in a country that has 40% unemployment.
Millions of refugees have poured into RSA in recent years, especially from Zimbabwe. In RSA, foreign Africans face ongoing xenophobia and resentment from people who accuse them of coming to steal their jobs. In 2008, there were massive riots and attacks on foreign African nationals throughout RSA. More than sixty people were atrociously murdered; hundreds more were seriously wounded and 50,000 left homeless. Since 2008, African foreigners are the victims of ongoing criminal attacks that are disproportionate to their percentage of the total population.
A good number of refugees, through the mediation of the UNHCR and non-governmental organizations that collaborate with it, such as the Jesuit Refugee Services, ultimately seek asylum in countries farther away where they hope to be able to build a secure future for themselves and their children. Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Sweden give residential status to a certain number of refugees. Germany is the industrialized country that has settled the largest refugee population.
WAITING FOR THE NEXT WAVE
Many refugees remain in unsettled situations for five years or more; about a third of current refugees are in this situation. Some, such as the Afghans who first fled the Soviet invasion in 1979, have been refugees for as many as thirty years. Some countries do not welcome refugees, whether in general or those coming from particular countries but force them to return to their own countries, even when it is well known that they will face persecution or other dangers. Israel and Egypt force Eritreans to return to Eritrea where they face persecution.
This is called “refoulement” and is a gross violation of international law and legally binding international conventions.
In addition to refugees, the UNHCR cares for about 3.5 million “stateless people” who have no legally-established nationality. Estimates of the global number of stateless people run as high as 12 million.
The purpose of the UNHCR is to assure international protection for refugees and stateless persons, and to assist governments in finding solutions to refugee situations. The basis for the activities of the UNHCR is the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, an agreement between states regarding how they will treat refugees. The Convention has been ratified by 144 countries out of the U.N.’s total of 193, and entered into force in 1954. It was later supplemented by a Protocol adopted in 1967. The U.S.A. never ratified the Convention but does accept the binding nature of the Protocol; some other countries are party to the Convention but not the Protocol.
The statistics and information given in this article do not include small farmers who have been forced off their lands through “land-grabbing” by corrupt or incompetent government officials to lease or sell to other countries, corporations or investment groups – lands that hve been occupied for generations by small farmers. In addition, the next big wave of refugees and IDPs are expected to be those forced from their homes by the consequences of global climate change, such as drought, flooding or an unpredictable crop-growing season.
