Monday marks World Refugee Day, and with it comes the announcement of a new record.
As of the end of 2015, 65.3 million people were forcibly displaced throughout the world—meaning they were displaced within their own country, or were refugees or asylum seekers abroad—the first time the 60 million threshold has ever been passed, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
In total, one person in every 113 around the world was forcibly displaced, whether it be due to war, persecution or natural disasters. In 2015, more than one million displaced people arrived in Europe, which earlier this year attempted to stem the flow of refugees and migrants by enacting a deal with Turkey to return Syrian asylum seekers to that country on the basis that it is a “safe third country.”
“This year’s commemoration comes at a time when brutal conflicts are forcing record numbers of innocent people to flee, and challenging the world to find better ways to protect them,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in astatement on Monday. “The war in Syria alone has displaced more than 11 million people—half of that nation’s pre-war population. Millions more have fled Daesh’s atrocities in Iraq, civil wars in Yemen and South Sudan, political violence in Burundi, and Boko Haram’s rampages through Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.”
In addition to the ongoing crisis involving men, women and children fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa, there are “rising numbers of people fleeing gang and other violence in Central America,” UNHCR said on Monday. Colombia has the world’s largest number of internally displaced people: 6.9 million.
Here are some of the key numbers from the UNHCR report released to mark World Refugee Day.
65.3 million: The record-high number of forcibly displaced people in the world. If they were a nation, it would be the 21st largest in the world. This number includes21.3 million refugees, of which more than five million are Palestinian refugees;40.8 million internally displaced persons; and 3.2 million asylum seekers.
24: The number of people who were forced from their homes every minute in 2015, adding up to 34,000 people per day. This number is down from 30 per minute in 2014, but much higher than the six per minute in 2005.
12.4 million: The number of people who were newly displaced in 2015 due to conflict or persecution. This includes 8.6 million internally displaced people and1.8 million new refugees, mostly from Syria.
54 percent: Percentage of the world’s refugees in 2015 who came from three countries: Syria (4.9 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million) and Somalia (1.1 million).
3,770: Number of refugees and migrants who died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea for Europe in 2015.
98,400:- Number of unaccompanied or separated children who lodged asylum applications in 78 countries in 2015. It’s the highest number since the UNHCR began keeping record in 2006.
2.5 million: Number of refugees currently living in Turkey, the host country with the largest number of refugees for a second year in a row. Turkey is followed by Pakistan, which is hosting 1.6 million refugees, and Lebanon, which has 1.1 million, or 183 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants.
441,900: Number of new asylum applications registered in 2015 in Germany, the largest total for a recipient country. The majority of applications were from Syrians. The U.S. received the second-largest number of asylum applications, with 172,700 in 2015. Afghans, Iraqis, Albanians, Serbians, Eritreans and Ukrainians also made up some of the largest numbers of asylum seekers.
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