One in 113 people worldwide is displaced
By Emma Batha
LONDON, June 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A record 65.6 million people worldwide were forced from their homes due to conflict or persecution by the end of 2016, the United Nations said on Monday.
Below are some facts from the U.N. refugee agency's Global Trends Report published ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday.
- One in 113 people worldwide is displaced. - A record 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2016 - more than the population of Britain - and an increase of 300,000 over the previous year.
- This included 22.5 million refugees, 40.3 million uprooted within their countries and 2.8 million asylum seekers.
- One person became displaced every three seconds in 2016.
- More than half of refugees globally come from three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.
- The fastest growing refugee population was spurred by the crisis in South Sudan.
- Nearly two-thirds of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.
- Developing regions host 84 percent of the world's refugees.
- Lebanon cares for the largest number of refugees relative to its national population, with one in six people a refugee, followed by Jordan (one in 11) and Turkey (one in 28).
- Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees (2.9 million) followed by Pakistan (1.4
- Children under 18 make up just over half the refugee population.
- There were 2 million new asylum claims in 2016. Germany received the highest number, followed by the United States, Italy and Turkey.
- Unaccompanied or separated children - mainly Afghans and Syrians - lodged some 75,000 applications in 70 countries in 2016. But this is thought to be an underestimate as the data is incomplete.
- Some 189,300 refugees were accepted for resettlement by 37 countries.
- Some 552,200 refugees returned to their countries of origin - more than double the previous year. Most returned to Afghanistan.
- At least 10 million people are estimated to be stateless.
(Editing by Astrid Zweynert; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
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