It is a historic record: by the end of 2019, 79.5 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced due to conflicts, persecutions, or climate change, accounting for more than 1% of humanity, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), in a report released on June 18 ahead of World Refugee Day.
The document shows that 45.7 of the 79.5 million displaced people at the end of 2019 were internally displaced, having fled to other parts of their country. The others went abroad, with a large majority (85%) living in developing countries, generally neighboring the countries they left.
More than two-thirds of all UNHCR refugees (including Venezuelans displaced abroad without refugee status) come from just five countries: Syria with 6.6 million, Venezuela with 3.7 million, Afghanistan with 2.7 million, South Sudan with 2.2 million, and Myanmar (formerly Burma) with 1.1 million.
Germany, the leading host country in Europe
The main host countries for these displaced people are Turkey, which tops the list with 3.6 million refugees, followed by Colombia with 1.8 million, most of whom are Venezuelans, Pakistan with 1.4 million, and Germany with 1.1 million.
The UN agency takes advantage of the release of its annual report to “urge all countries around the world to do more to provide a home for the millions of refugees and other displaced persons due to conflicts, persecution, or any other event disrupting public order.”
