Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan account for half of world's refugees - UNHCR

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria account for over half of the world’s refugees. With the volatile African nation contributing over a million people to the statistics.

Syria produces the highest among the three countries with 4.9 million whiles instability in Afghanistan also accounts for some 2.7 million of refugees.

The UNHCR in its report titled ‘Global Trends’ which was released on the ocassion of ‘World Refugee Day’ (June 20) noted that a record 65.3 million people were displaced globally in 2015, compared to 59.5 million people at the end of 2014.

BREAKING: Global forced displacement hits record high – #UNHCR https://t.co/iNIpuCSPGx pic.twitter.com/I6N3nZEA3T

— Babar Baloch (@iBabarBaloch) June 20, 2016

According to the Refugee Agency, ‘It is the first time in the organization’s history that the threshold of 60 million has been crossed.’

“More people are being displaced by war and persecution and that’s worrying in itself, but the factors that endanger refugees are multiplying too.”

“At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Closing borders does not solve the problem,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is quoted to have said.

Key statistics from the UNHCR report

• On average 24 people were forced to flee each minute in 2015, comapred to six people fleeing conflict every 60 seconds in 2005.

• A total of 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million 12 months earlier.

• With a world’s population of 7.4 billion people, one in every 113 people globally is now either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee

• Children made up over half of refugee statistics in 2015 (51%)

• Global refugee tally is greater than the population of the United Kingdom – or of Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined

• A record 40.8 million people who had been forced to flee their homes were within the confines of their own countries (Internally displaced)

• Syria with 4.9 million, Afghanistan at 2.7 million and Somalia at 1.1 million together accounted for more than half the refugees

• Colombia at 6.9 million, Syria at 6.6 million and Iraq at 4.4 million had the largest numbers of internally displaced people.

• 86 percent of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate in 2015 were in low- and middle-income countries close to situations of conflict.

• Worldwide, Turkey was the biggest host country, with 2.5 million refugees. With nearly one refugee for every five citizens,

• Lebanon hosted more refugees compared to its population than any other country.