INTRODUCTION
At the start of 2006, the number of people 'of concern' to UNHCR rose to 20.8 million, up 6 percent from the 2005 total of 19.5 million. The increase reflected the sum of various ups and downs among the different groups assisted by the agency, including refugees, civilians who have returned home but still need help, people displaced internally within their own countries, asylum seekers and stateless people.
In an encouraging trend, the number of refugees – people who have fled persecution in their own countries to seek safety in neighbouring states and who comprise UNHCR's core 'constituency' – fell 12 percent in 2005 to 8.4 million. Over the past five years the global refugee population has fallen by one third and now stands at the lowest level since 1980. One reason for this is that a total of 1.1 million refugees went home voluntarily in 2005, including 752,000 to Afghanistan and 70,000 to Liberia. Another reason for the sharp drop in the global total is that only 136,000 new refugees fled to neighbouring states in 2005 – the smallest number for 29 years.
There was a large increase in the number of civilians uprooted by violence who remained within their own countries – the group known as internally displaced persons (or IDPs) – and better data also resulted in a big increase in the number of stateless people. The 22 percent rise in the number of IDPs of concern to UNHCR was largely explained by the inclusion of 1.2 million Iraqi and 400,000 Somali IDPs. The number of stateless people on the agency's books went up by over one third to 2.4 million.
Despite the huge number of Afghans who continued to return home, they remain the largest refugee group of concern to UNHCR, with 1.9 million scattered across 72 countries. The great majority are still to be found in Pakistan and Iran, which continue to host the largest refugee populations in the world.
| PERSONS OF CONCERN TO UNHCR - BY REGION | Region
Asia
Africa
Europe
Latin America & Caribbean
North America
Oceania | 1 Jan 2005*
7,230,100
4,855,200
4,426,400
2,070,800
853,300
82,600 | 1 Jan 2006
8,603,600
5,169,300
3,666,700
2,513,000
716,800
82,500 | TOTAL | 19,518,400 | 20,751,900 | |
* Revised year-end figures.
Refugees and total population of concern to UNHCR 1981-2006
(figures as of 1 January)1 | Year
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006 | Refugees
8,455,000
9,714,000
10,319,000
10,621,000
10,728,000
11,864,000
12,634,000
13,128,000
14,347,000
14,733,000
17,396,000
16,855,000
17,838,000
16,326,000
15,754,000
14,896,000
13,357,000
12,015,400
11,480,900
11,687,200
12,129,600
12,116,800
10,594,100
9,680,300
9,559,100
8,394,400 | Total Population of Concern
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
20,047,700
20,124,700
20,821,800
22,006,100
20,028,900
20,892,500
17,101,300
19,518,400
20,751,900 | |
1 These figures may be presented as 31 Dec. figures in other UNHCR documents. Includes revised figures.
WHO DOES UNHCR HELP AND HOW?
UNHCR provides protection and assistance not only to refugees, but also to other categories of displaced or needy people. These include asylum seekers, refugees who have returned home but still need help in rebuilding their lives, local civilian communities directly affected by the movements of refugees, stateless people and so-called internally displaced people (IDPs).
These are civilians who have been forced to flee their homes, but who have not reached a neighbouring country and therefore, unlike refugees, are not protected by international law and may find it hard to receive any form of assistance. As the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, with more and more internal conflicts replacing interstate wars, the number of IDPs has increased significantly to an estimated 23.7 million worldwide.
In 2006, UNHCR was applying its long-time expertise in specific areas such as protection, emergency shelter and camp management to help 6.6 million of these IDPs in close collaboration with other UN and non-governmental agencies. UNHCR was also involved with a further 519,000 IDPs who went home during the course of the year. Although the agency launched major operations to help hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake, these beneficiaries are not included in the annual statistics.
Refugees: 8.4 million
UNHCR's founding mandate defines refugees as people who are outside their country and cannot return owing to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. Regional instruments such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America expanded that mandate to include people who have fled because of war or civil conflict. A total of 146 countries have signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol and recognize people as refugees based on the definitions contained in these and regional instruments.
By the start of 2006, the global refugee population had dropped from 9.5 million to 8.4 million – the lowest total since 1980, largely as a result of more than 6 million refugees (two-thirds of them Afghans) returning home over the past four years. In addition to the continuing return of Afghans, 2005 saw other major repatriations to Liberia, Burundi, Iraq and Angola (all of which welcomed back more than 50,000 returnees during the course of the year). Mass movements of new refugees into neighbouring countries (so-called prima facie refugees) totalled 136,000 – the lowest such number since 1976. The largest exodus took place from Togo, where 39,000 people fled their homes. Refugees currently constitute 40 percent of the total population 'of concern' to UNHCR.
ORIGIN OF MAJOR REFUGEE POPULATIONS – 1 JAN 2006
[Ten largest groups] | | Origin | Main Countries of Asylum | Total1 | | Afghanistan | Pakistan / Iran / Germany / Netherlands / UK | 1,908,1002 | | Sudan | Chad / Uganda / Kenya / Ethiopia / Central African Rep. | 693,300 | | Burundi | Tanzania / DR Congo / Rwanda / South Africa / Zambia | 438,700 | | DR Congo | Tanzania / Zambia / Congo / Rwanda / Uganda | 430,600 | | Somalia | Kenya / Yemen / UK / USA / Ethiopia | 394,800 | | Viet Nam | China / Germany / USA / France / Switzerland | 358,200 | | Palestinians | Saudi Arabia / Egypt / Iraq / Libya / Algeria | 349,7003 | | Iraq | Iran / Germany / Netherlands / Syria / UK | 262,100 | | Azerbaijan | Armenia / Germany / USA / Netherlands / France | 233,700 | | Liberia | Sierra Leone / Guinea / Côte d'Ivoire / Ghana / USA | 231,100 | |
1 This table includes UNHCR estimates for nationalities in industrialized countries on the basis of recent refugee arrivals and asylum-seeker recognition.
2 UNHCR figures for Pakistan only include Afghans living in camps who are assisted by UNHCR. A 2005 government census of Afghans in Pakistan, and subsequent repatriation movements, suggest an additional 1.5 million Afghans – some of whom may be refugees – are living outside camps. The figure for Iran has been revised upwards since 1 January.
3 This figure does not include some 4.3 million Palestinian refugees who come under the separate mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
MAJOR REFUGEE ARRIVALS DURING 2005
[Ten largest movements] | | Origin | Main Countries of Asylum | Total | | Togo | Benin / Ghana | 39,100 | | Sudan | Chad / Uganda | 34,500 | | DR Congo | Uganda / Rwanda / Burundi | 15,600 | | Somalia | Yemen | 13,600 | | Central African Rep. | Chad | 11,500 | | Iraq | Syria | 10,500 | | Burundi | Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda | 6,100 | | Bhutan | Nepal | 1,500 | | Rwanda | Uganda | 1,500 | | Russian Federation | Azerbaijan | 500 | |
Asylum seekers: 773,500
When people flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another state, they often have to apply for 'asylum' – the right to be recognized as bona fide refugees and receive legal protection and material assistance. At the beginning of 2006, there were some 773,500 asylum seekers whose individual claims had not yet been adjudicated – including some of the 668,400 people who made asylum applications during 2005. The largest numbers of claims were filed by nationals of Myanmar, Somalia and Serbia and Montenegro. More than half of the new applications were lodged in Europe.
Over the last half century, several million people have been granted asylum worldwide, but in recent years the number of claims has been dropping steadily. Asylum applications in a grouping of 50 industrialized countries, for example, fell sharply for the fourth year in a row in 2005, reaching their lowest level in almost two decades.
In times of huge crises, the system of asylum is sometimes modified. During the 1990s Balkan wars when millions of people fled their homes, UNHCR recognized that such large outflows could overwhelm the individual asylum process in receiving countries. The agency suggested a simpler and faster mechanism of offering the arrivals 'temporary protection' for a limited period of time – insisting, however, that asylum remained the cornerstone of its mandate to protect refugees.
In all around one quarter (24 percent) of the world's refugees were granted refugee status after going through an individual asylum processing system, whereas 64 percent were granted refugee status on a group – or prima facie – basis.
NEW ASYLUM APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN SELECTED INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES 1
[in 2005] | | Country of Asylum | Asylum applications | Main Countries of Origin | | France | 49,700 | Haiti / Serbia & Montenegro / Turkey / Russian Fed. / DR Congo | | United States2 | 39,200 | China / Haiti / Colombia / El Salvador / Mexico | | United Kingdom | 30,500 | Iran / Pakistan / Somalia / Eritrea / Afghanistan | | Germany | 28,900 | Serbia & Montenegro / Turkey / Iraq / Russian Fed. / Viet Nam | | Austria | 22,500 | Serbia & Montenegro / Russian Fed. / India / Moldova / Turkey | | Canada | 20,800 | Mexico / China / Colombia / Sri Lanka / India | | Sweden | 17,500 | Serbia & Montenegro / Iraq / Russian Fed. / Stateless people / Bulgaria | | Belgium | 16,000 | Russian Fed. / DR Congo / Serbia & Montenegro / Iraq / Slovakia | | Netherlands | 12,300 | Iraq / Somalia / Afghanistan / Iran / Burundi | | Switzerland | 10,100 | Serbia & Montenegro / Turkey / Somalia / Iraq / Bulgaria | |
1 Countries with more than 10,000 new asylum applications.
2 Data refers to individual or collective applications.
Internally displaced people: 6,617,000
UNHCR extends protection or assistance to certain groups that were not included in the agency's original mandate, but whom the UN Secretary-General or the UN General Assembly have requested it to help. They include so-called internally displaced people (IDPs) who are caught in situations similar to refugees, but who have stayed in their own countries rather than cross an international frontier. Because they in effect 'fall between the cracks' of current humanitarian law and assistance, a widespread debate has been underway for several years over how best to help all IDPs, and who should be responsible for their well-being.
At the start of 2006, there were an estimated 23.7 million internally displaced people worldwide. The UN refugee agency was helping 6.6 million IDPs in 16 countries, a 22 percent jump compared to the previous year. The increase primarily reflected newly reported IDP situations in Iraq (1.2 million) and Somalia (400,000), and the number of IDPs of concern to UNHCR in the Darfur region of Sudan also rose. There were other groups of long-term IDPs in Sudan, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Liberia and Georgia. UNHCR was also involved with an additional 519,400 IDPs who went home during the course of the year – making an overall total of 7.1 million IDPs past and present.
MAJOR IDP POPULATIONS OF CONCERN TO UNHCR
[at 1 January 2006] | | Country | IDPs | | Colombia (UNHCR estimate) | 2,000,000 | | Iraq | 1,200,000 | | Sudan | 841,900 | | Azerbaijan | 578,500 | | Somalia | 400,000 | | Sri Lanka | 324,700 | | Serbia & Montenegro | 246,400 | | Liberia | 237,800 | | Georgia | 234,200 | | Bosnia & Herzegovina | 182,700 | | Russian Federation | 170,500 | | Afghanistan | 142,500 | |
NOTE: This table reflects only IDPs who are protected or assisted by UNHCR.
Stateless: 2,381,900
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights underlines that "Everyone has the right to a nationality." Unfortunately, circumstances have conspired to deny many of that right, often leaving them in a Kafkaesque legal vacuum. The UN refugee agency has increasingly been asked to assist an ever growing number of the world's stateless people. As a result of a concerted effort to improve the data provided by states, the number of stateless people identified as being of concern to UNHCR rose sharply from 1,455,900 in 2005 to 2,381,900 at the beginning of 2006. Although precise numbers are still difficult to estimate, UNHCR believes the actual total of people without a country to call their own may be at least 11 million.
A further 960,400 people, who do not fit readily into any of the main categories, were also considered of concern to UNHCR at the start of 2006.
Returnees: 1,105,500
Most refugees prefer to return home as soon as circumstances permit, generally when a conflict has ended, a degree of stability has been restored and basic infrastructure is being rebuilt. UNHCR encourages voluntary repatriation as the best solution for displaced people, providing it is safe and their reintegration is viable. The agency often provides transportation and a start-up package which may include cash grants and practical assistance such as farm tools and seeds. On occasion, it extends this help to include the rebuilding of homes, schools, clinics and roads. Field staff monitor the well-being of returnees in delicate situations. The duration of such activities varies, but rarely lasts longer than two years when UNHCR's aid is normally replaced by longer-term development assistance from other organizations.
The last four years have seen an unprecedented level of return with more than 6 million refugees – 4.6 million of them Afghans – going home. The high levels continued in 2005, with an estimated 1.1 million exiles returning to their countries. They included 752,100 Afghans, 70,300 to Liberia, 68,300 to Burundi, 56,200 Iraqis and 53,800 Angolans.
TOP TEN VOLUNTARY REPATRIATION MOVEMENTS
[in 2005, by destination1] | To
(country of origin) | From
(main countries of asylum) | Total | | Afghanistan | Pakistan / Iran | 752,000 | | Liberia | Côte d'Ivoire / Guinea / Sierra Leone / Ghana | 70,000 | | Burundi | Tanzania / Rwanda / DR Congo | 68,000 | | Iraq | Iran | 56,000 | | Angola | Zambia / DR Congo / Namibia / Congo | 54,000 | | DR Congo | Tanzania / Rwanda / Congo / Burundi | 39,000 | | Sudan | DR Congo | 19,000 | | Somalia | Djibouti / Ethiopia | 12,000 | | Rwanda | DR Congo / Uganda | 10,000 | | Nigeria | Cameroon | 7,000 | |
1 Figures are based on country of origin and asylum reports.
Resettlement: 80,800
Some refugees cannot go home or are unwilling to do so, usually because they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps to find them new homes, either in the asylum country where they are living or in third countries where they can be permanently resettled. People facing particular problems or threats in their first asylum countries also benefit from resettlement. Though many nations have agreed to accept refugees on a temporary basis during the early phase of a crisis, fewer than 20 nations worldwide take part in UNHCR resettlement programs and accept quotas of refugees on an annual basis. In 2005, 16 countries participated.
The number of refugees accepted for resettlement plunged sharply following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, especially in the United States. But gradually, they have been going up again and in 2005 reached 80,800, including some 30,500 who were resettled with UNHCR assistance. In all, 83 UNHCR country offices were involved in resettlement departures during 2005.
MAIN COUNTRIES OF RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES
[in 2005]1 | | Country | Total | | United States | 53,813 | | Australia | 11,654 | | Canada | 10,400 | | Sweden | 1,263 | | Finland | 766 | | Norway | 749 | | New Zealand | 741 | | Denmark | 483 | | Netherlands | 419 | | United Kingdom | 175 | | Ireland | 117 | | Brazil | 76 | | Chile | 46 | | Argentina | 34 | | Iceland | 31 | | Mexico | 29 | |
1 Source: Governments/UNHCR.
Numbers at a glance
At the beginning of 2006, the number of people of concern to UNHCR was 20.8 million.
They included 8.4 million refugees (40%), 773,500 asylum seekers (4%), 1.6 million returned refugees and IDPs (7%), 6.6 million internally displaced people (32%), 2.4 million stateless people (11%) and 960,400 'others of concern' to UNHCR.
The figure of 20.8 million was an increase of 6 percent over the previous year's 19.5 million. The increase was attributable to two principal developments: the continuing rise in the number of internally displaced people helped by UNHCR and the availability of more data on stateless people.
The global refugee population, UNHCR's 'core constituency' dropped from 9.5 million to 8.4 million, principally because of the return of 752,000 Afghans from Pakistan and Iran. It was the lowest refugee total since 1980.
The number of people who went home – usually known as 'returnees' – reached 1.1 million in 2005, 400,000 fewer than in 2004. Some 715,000 of them were assisted by UNHCR.
136,000 new prima facie refugees were registered in 2005, the smallest number for 29 years. Major exoduses occurred from Togo [39,100], Sudan [34,500], the Democratic Republic of the Congo [15,600], Somalia [13,600] and the Central African Republic [11,500].
Asia hosted around two-fifths of all the people of concern to UNHCR, 8.6 million or 41%, followed by Africa 5.2 million [25%], Europe 3.7 million [18%], Latin America 2.5 million [12%], North America 716,800 [3%] and Oceania 82,500 [0.4%].
During 2005, a total of 668,400 people applied for asylum worldwide, more than half of them in Europe. The largest number of claims were submitted by nationals of Myanmar, Somalia and Serbia and Montenegro. Combined with applications still pending from previous years, the overall total awaiting decision at the start of 2006 was 773,500.
The top five refugee-hosting countries are Pakistan: 1,085,000 (UNHCR estimate); Iran: 716,000; Germany: 700,000; Tanzania: 549,000; and United States: 380,000 (UNHCR estimate).
All five experienced a decrease in the total number of refugees on their soil.
Basic Facts [as of 1st July 2006]
Number of UNHCR offices worldwide including Headquarters: 262 in 116 countries
UNHCR staff members, including short-term staff: 6,689
Staff members in the field: 5,607 (84% of total)
Ratio of staff members to people of concern to UNHCR: 1 per 3,102
Total UNHCR budget for 2006: US$ 1.45 billion
Total budget for 2005: US$ 1.41 billion
Number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working as implementing partners in July 2006: 565
Total number of NGOs as implementing partners in 2005: 647
States party to the 1951 Convention and/or to the 1967 Protocol: 146
The text on this page is from a full-colour UNHCR brochure entitled
Refugees by Numbers (2006 edition), one of a series of A5-size publications introducing the organisation and its work. This is available in pdf format
here (1.6Mb, opens in new window).
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