Global refugee population grows by almost 10 per cent in one year

More than 120 million people have been displaced, with low to middle income countries bearing most of the burden

Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water in the Farchana refugee camp in Chad. AFP

The world’s refugee population grew by almost a tenth last year, with more than 120 million people now displaced, the UN’s refugee agency has said.

Conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine and Gaza were among those responsible for an 8 per cent rise in refugees in 2023, with the number of displaced people growing to 117.3 million by the end of that year.

The statistics, compiled in the UN High Commission for Refugees’s annual report, show that the world refugee population has grown for the 12th consecutive year.

The biggest round of displacement was in Sudan, where a conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces caused more than 7 million people to flee their homes in 2023.

Six million people in Sudan have been internally displaced, while 1.6 million fled to neighbouring countries.

Gaza’s estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people were included in the study, but as they were already part of the six million covered by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, provisions were made to ensure they were not counted twice.

Millions more have been displaced since January this year, bringing the estimated total to more than 120 million.

Almost three-quarters of refugees (73 per cent) originate from five countries: Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine and Sudan.

The UN agency’s chief Filippo Grandi called on the international community to act urgently.

“Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanise the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement,” he said.

This “difficult” year was made worse by budget shortages, Mr Grandi said during a press conference ahead of the report’s launch.

As of June this year, the UNHCR’s available funds covered 23 per cent of current global needs of $10.7 billion. The agency received half of the $10.9 billion it said was required in 2023.

Mr Grandi blamed “very fragmented international politics” for the absence of political solutions to the continuing wars, and criticised the UN Security Council for not leading the way towards “peacemaking”.

“The Security Council is, in a way, the thermometer of the backgrounds of the situations in which we operate,” he said.

“All I see in the debates on the council is a great deal of divisiveness on everything.

“Without better co-operation and concerted efforts to address conflict, human rights violations and the climate crisis, displacement figures will keep rising, bringing fresh misery and costly humanitarian responses,” he said.

Afghanistan has the largest population of displaced people at over 10 million, with 6.4 million as refugees in neighbouring countries or elsewhere.

Ukrainians are among the biggest, with the displacement of 6 million people continuing to grow but at a slower rate (5%) than the previous year.

Children wait for food being distributed at a camp for internally displaced people in Gaza. AFP

Violence in Myanmar after the military coup in 2021 displaced more than 1.3 million people in 2023, bringing the total up to 2.6 million.

Refugees were also found to be at bigger risk in the event of climate-related disasters.

The report comes as anti-migrant sentiment grows in Europe, where far-right parties gained unexpected ground at the European Parliamentary elections this year.

The report reveals a 40 per cent increase in individual asylum applications globally to 5.6 million, with 6.9 million awaiting a decision.

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But it is low to middle-income countries, many in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Central America, who host 75 per cent of refugees. The vast majority of refugees (69 per cent) continue to go to neighbouring countries for protection.

The top countries for new asylum applications were the US – which received 60 per cent of all new applications – Chad, Germany, Egypt and Spain.

Egypt saw a 10-fold increase in asylum seekers from Sudan. The 183,100 new applications made to Egypt that year were just higher than Spain, with 163,200.

The temporary protection afforded to Ukrainians in Europe paints a different picture: a third of overall asylum applicants to Germany, and the vast majority (around 90 per cent) of those to Poland in 2023 were from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the options for refugees are narrowing. The prolonged nature of current conflicts means refugees are less likely to return to their home countries or place of origin, with a 20 per cent decline in returnees.

Fewer are being naturalised in their home countries, where there has been a dramatic decline of 40 per cent.

Resettlement remains a third option, but these levels are in the tens of thousands – a fraction of what is needed.

Mr Grandi praised new approaches such as a plan by the Kenyan government to integrate camps housing 600,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia and South Sudan, into the neighbouring communities.

“I consider that a little bit in counter-tendency, a positive trend,” he said.