15 June 2023: unhcr, asylum statistics, eu

UNHCR reports 108.4 million displaced

Of these 108.4 million forcibly displaced,

• 35.3 million were refugees - the largest recorded increase within a year
• 62.5 million were internally displaced
• 5.4 million were asylum seekers
• 5.2 other people in need of international protection (a newly named category consisting mostly of Venezuelans displaced abroad)

76% of the world's refugees and other people in need of international protection were hosted in low and middle income countries.

70% of refugees live in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.

About 40% of the displaced are children.

"Ongoing and new conflicts have driven forced displacement across the globe. The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created the fastest displacement crisis, and one of the largest, since the Second World War. At the end of 2022, a total of 11.6 million Ukrainians remained displaced, including 5.9 million within their country and 5.7 million who fled to neighbouring countries and beyond.

Conflict and insecurity in other parts of the world either continued or was reignited, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Myanmar, where more than 1 million people were displaced within each country. [...]

The number of refugees worldwide increased from 27.1 million in 2021 to 35.3 million at the end of 2022, the largest yearly increase ever recorded, according to UNHCR’s statistics on forced displacement.

The increase was largely due to refugees from Ukraine fleeing the international armed conflict in their country.

Overall, 52 per cent of all refugees and other people in need of international protection came from just three countries: the Syrian Arab Republic (6.5 million), Ukraine (5.7 million) and Afghanistan (5.7 million)." (from the summary page: https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends)

The report can be accessed at the following link:

UNHCR: Global Trends. Forced Displacement in 2022, 14 June 2022
https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2022

For numbers on asylum decisions in the European Union in 2022, see the following EUROSTAT publication:

"In 2022, EU countries granted protection status to 384 245 asylum seekers, up by 40% compared with 2021 (275 040) [...]

The highest number of people who received protection status was reported by Germany (159 365, 41% of the EU total), ahead of France (49 990, 13%), Italy (39 660, 10%), and Spain (35 765, 9%). Together, these four countries granted 73% of the protection requests at the EU level.

The largest group who obtained protection status in the EU in 2022 were Syrians (29% of the total number of people granted protection status in the EU). They were followed by Afghans (23%) and Venezuelans (6%).

The majority of Syrians (68%) and Afghans (55%) were granted protection status in Germany, while almost all Venezuelans (92%) were granted protection status in Spain." (EUROSTAT: Asylum decisions up by 40% in 2022, 27. April 2023)

The EUAA has announced the release of its Asylum Report 2023 for 4 July: https://euaa.europa.eu/asylum-knowledge/asylum-report