Global Statistics and Developments

People of Concern to UNHCR - The global number of people of concern to UNHCR fell by 22% from 21.8 million in Jan 2001 to 17.8 mil in Jan 2004, but was revised upward to 19.5 million at the beginning of 2005 and to 20.8 million at the end of 2005 due to increased IDP estimates.  40% of people of concern to UNHCR are now refugees (1/4 in Western countries) and 32% are IDPs and 11% are stateless.

Refugees - By the end of 2005, the global number of refugees was at a 25-year low of 8.4 million, mainly due to increased repatriations in West Africa and CASWANAME regions.

USCRI Estimates - According to USCRI estimates at 1/1/6, there are 21 mil IDPs and 12 mil refugees and asylum seekers (inc. Palestinians). This includes 1.04 mil new refugees and 2.1 mil new IDPs in 2005.

Warehoused refugees - Despite increased repatriation, falls in asylum applications and increased resettlement over recent years, the number of warehoused refugees remains much the same. In January 2006, 7.89 million of the world’s 12 million refugees had been warehoused - confined to camps or segregated settlements and denied basic Refugee Convention rights such as freedom of movement, the right to work and basic education - for five years or more.  This represented an increase of 24,000 on the previous year. The average length of time a refugee spends in a refugee camp has increased from 9 to 17 years over the past decade.

Asylum applications down - Since 2002, there has been a sharp drop in applications in industrialised countries and by the start of 2005 they were at a 17-year low. This took the pressure off asylum states and led to hopes it would undermine public campaigns seeking tighter controls on immigration.  From January to June 2005, compared to the same period in 2004, asylum seeker arrivals fell by 18% in all 36 listed industrialized countries (from 189,900 to 156,200), and by 35% compared to the same period in 2003.

Repatriation

1. 752,100 Afghan refugees repatriated during 2005, mainly from Pakistan and Iran
2. Other major countries of origin experiencing decreasing refugee numbers due to repatriation in 2005 were Liberia (70,300), Burundi (68,300) and Iraq (56,000)

New refugees 

1. Togolese refugees quadrupled in 2005 (from 11,200 to 51,100) as a result of mass outflows to Benin and Ghana
2. Ten asylum countries reported arrivals of more than 1000 prima facie refugees, including Chad (32,000), Benin (25,500) and Uganda (24,000)
3. The number of refugees in Rwanda increased by 37,000 (+12%), primarily due to the revised population estimates in the DRC while the number of Eritrean refugees increased by more than 12,000 (+9%).