In 1951, the UN established the 1951 Refugee Convention, in order to safeguard the rights of refugees in Europe in the backdrop of World War II. In 1967, the convention was extended to address displacement across the globe. The number of refugees has been increased in the previous decade from 15 million in 2011 to 30 million in 2020. According to UNHCR’s latest report, there are 82.4 million people around the world displaced by conflict or oppression. Thirty million of those are refugees, 48 million are displaced within their own country and 4.1 million are asylum-seekers. Approximately half of these forcefully displaced people are children. 55 % of refugees are mainly from three countries, which includes Syria, Palestine and Venezuela. UNHCR further said that, “During the COVID-19 pandemic everything else has stopped, including the economies, but wars and conflict and violence and discrimination and persecution, all the factors that pushed these people to flee, have continued,”.
More than one-third of the world’s displaced people are from Africa. Around 30.6 million people were displaced across the continent by the end of 2020. In the Middle East last year, nearly 134,000 Syrian refugees have left their country. 65,000 escaped to neighbouring Turkey, which now hosts the world’s biggest refugee community ,3.7 million people. In Latin America, approximately 400,000 refugees flew Venezuela amid a political and financial crisis in the country. In Asia, at least 29,000 refugees were reported to be from Myanmar. In Europe, almost 89,000 refugees escaped from Azerbaijan to Armenia following 44 days of fighting. During 2020, Across the Atlantic, United States received 8,500 refugees from 20 countries. Approximately half of these refugees came from Venezuela, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the same year, Canada received 7,500 refugees from 21 countries. According to the report, Pakistan presently hosts more than 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees who have been forced to flee their homes.
Comments are closed.