World problems

Refugees

Refugees and refugee protection have become global issues, in a number of ways.

Firstly, geographically. There is no region of the world not affected, whether as a producer or a receiver of refugees, or as a country of transit.

Secondly, in the causes of migration. These form a broad spectrum, including forced migration, due to persecution, conflict, environmental issues and violation of human rights; economic migration; voluntary migration; and, in several cases, people migrating for different reasons but following the same routes at the same time. This variety creates a challenge for the specific needs of refugee protection, especially when global actions and policies contributing to migration are not made accountable.

Thirdly, in the sheer number of refugees. There is a record high of 65.6 million persons forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution and human rights violations, according to the UNHCR, of which 22.5 million are refugees and 2.8 million are asylum seekers.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/the-refugee-crisis-or-a-crisis-for-refugees/

The world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2016. Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also 10 million stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.

An agency to help Refugees
People fleeing persecution and conflict have been granted asylum in foreign lands for thousands of years. The UN agency that helps refugees is UNHCR (also known as the UN Refugee Agency), which emerged in the wake of World War II to help Europeans displaced by that conflict.

UNHCR was established on December 14, 1950 by the UN General Assembly with a three-year mandate to complete its work and then disband. The following year, on July 28, the legal foundation of helping refugees and the basic statute guiding UNHCR's work, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, was adopted. So instead of ending its work after three years, UNHCR has been working ever since to help refugees.

In the 1960s, the decolonization of Africa produced the first of that continent's numerous refugee crises needing UNHCR intervention. Over the following two decades, UNHCR had to help with displacement crises in Asia and Latin America. By the end of the century there were fresh refugee problems in Africa and, turning full circle, new waves of refugees in Europe from the series of wars in the Balkans.

In a world  here  nearly 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute as a result of conflict or persecution, the work of UNHCR is more important than ever before.

Millions of Syrians displaced
The conflict in Syria, now in its seventh year, was the world’s biggest producer of refugees (5.5 million).  Humanitarian needs in Syria have increased significantly since the beginning of the crisis, with 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 6 million children. Over 400,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million injured since 2010.

Many Syrians have been forced to leave their homes, often multiple times, making Syria the largest displacement crisis in the world with 6.3 million people internally displaced and almost 4 million people registered as refugees in neighboring countries. An estimated 4.53 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in hard-to-reach areas and besieged locations.

Turkey hosts over 2.9 million registered Syrians. The majority of them live in urban areas, with around 260,000 accommodated in the 21 government-run refugee camps.  There are more than a million registered Syrians in Lebanon and 660,000 in Jordan. Iraq has also seen a growing number of Syrians arriving, hosting more than 241,000, while in Egypt UNHCR provides protection and assistance to more than 122,000.

Palestine refugees are particularly vulnerable with an estimated 460,000 people receiving regular assistance around Syria. School attendance has dropped by more than 50 per cent and roughly one-quarter of schools have been damaged, destroyed or are used as collective shelters. More than half of Syria's hospitals have been destroyed or badly damaged. Water supply has decreased to less than 50 per cent of its pre-crisis levels. An estimated 9.8 million people are considered food insecure and many more are living in poverty.

http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/refugees/