UN: Global Refugee Numbers Reach Alarming Levels
By AP
Published: 18th June 2015 01:30 PM
BERLIN (AP) — Syria overtook
Afghanistan to become the world's biggest source of refugees last year, while
the number of people forced from their homes by conflicts worldwide rose to a
record 59.5 million, the United Nations' refugee agency said Thursday.
Pointing to crises in Syria, Iraq,
Yemen, Burundi and elsewhere, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio
Guterres said he doesn't expect any improvement in 2015.
"There is a multiplication of
new crises," he said. "The Iraq-Syria crisis gained the dimension of
a mega one ... and at the same time the old crises have no solutions."
The report comes at a time when
Europe is grappling with how to deal with a flood of new migrants crossing the
Mediterranean to escape fighting in Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
UNHCR estimated that a total of 59.5
million people worldwide had been displaced by conflict by the end of last year
— including 38.2 million displaced within their own countries. That was up from
51.2 million in 2013 — the previous highest since the U.N. began collecting
numbers in the early 1950s. Syria alone accounted for 11.6 million of those
people, the biggest single figure.
The agency counted nearly 3.9
million Syrian refugees in 107 countries last year, the fourth year of the
country's civil war. That made it the leading source of refugees — pushing
Afghanistan, which had held that status for more than 30 years, down to second
place with 2.6 million refugees.
Syria's northern neighbor, Turkey,
became the world's biggest refugee host with 1.59 million refugees. Pakistan,
which had held that position for more than a decade, was second with 1.51
million.
Over the course of last year, only
126,800 refugees returned to their home countries — the lowest number since
1983. The countries to which most people returned were Congo, Mali and
Afghanistan.
Guterres said he was alarmed by
"a staggering acceleration" in the number of people being forced from
their homes over recent years.
For many of those who have fled,
home still beckons.
Maher Al Khedrawi, one of the many
Syrians who have left for Turkey, said in a recent interview with The
Associated Press that he looked forward to returning to his country, a sentiment
he said was shared by millions of others. The 40-year-old warehouse supervisor
rejects the label of "refugee."
"Hopefully, our home will be
rebuilt and stabilized again," he said. "I'll be among the first
people who go back. There is no place like home."
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