Developing countries host 80 per cent of the world’s refugees, according to UNHCR’s 2010 Global Trends report issued on World Refugee Day yesterday.
The report, published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, shows that many of the world’s poorest countries welcome large refugee populations.
Last year, Pakistan hosted the largest refugee population, 1.9 million people, while 1.1 million were in Iran and one million in Syria.
UNHCR reported that by the end of last year, some 43.7 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to conflict and persecution, the highest number in more than 15 years. About 15.4 million of these were refugees.
More than one-third of refugees were residing in countries covered by UNHCR’s Asia and Pacific region. Sub-Saharan Africa hosted 20 per cent of all refugees, while the Middle East and North Africa region hosted 18 per cent.
On the other hand, Europe hosted 15 per cent and the Americas eight per cent, the smallest proportion. In Europe, refugees from Serbia, Iraq and Turkey were the largest groups.
The report says by the end of 2010, there were more than 6,000 refugees in Malta, while 1,295 asylum-seeker cases were pending.
On the other hand, there were only six refugees of Maltese origin, while one Maltese asylum seeker’s case was still pending.
In the meantime, national statistics showed that applications for asylum filed with the Refugee Commissioner in Malta dropped by 92.6 per cent in 2010 when compared to the previous year.
Only two boats carrying 47 people reached Malta’s shores last year, a drop of 15 boats when compared to 2009 and the lowest number in a decade.
The drop is mainly attributed to the controversial Libya-Italy pushback agreement, widely criticised by humanitarian organisations.
This year, UNHCR commemorates the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention on the status of refugees and the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the reduction of statelessness.
“In today’s world there are worrying misperceptions about refugee movements and the international protection paradigm,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees and head of UNHCR, António Guterres, said.
“Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialised countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden,” he added.
Last year, more than 4.4 million refugees, around 42 per cent of the world’s refugees, resided in countries whose GDP per capita was below US$3,000. Three out of ten refugees in the world were from Afghanistan while Iraqis were the second largest refugee group, with 1.7 million people located primarily in neighbouring countries.
“One refugee without hope is too many,” Mr Guterres said. “The world is failing these people, leaving them to wait out the instability back home and put their lives on hold indefinitely. Developing countries cannot continue to bear this burden alone and the industrialised world must address this imbalance. We need to see increased resettlement quotas. We need accelerated peace initiatives in long-standing conflicts so that refugees can go home.”
UNHCR insists there are three “durable solutions” to the problem of refugees: voluntary repatriation to the home country, the identification of appropriate permanent integration mechanisms in the country of asylum and resettlement to another country.
Voluntary repatriation has historically benefited the largest number of refugees, according to UNHCR. However, persistent conflict, fear of persecution or lack of basic services in the areas of return often prevent people from returning to their countries of origin.
Resettlement is a key protection tool and a significant responsibility sharing mechanism.
For some refugees, resettlement to a third country is the only way to find permanent safety and be able to enjoy fundamental human rights.