human rights
UNHCR: Crises drive refugee numbers to record high
Refugees are in one of the tents of a temporary refugee shelter. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
More and more crises are forcing more and more people to flee, millions worldwide. However, governments could take the pressure off the asylum systems, says the UN refugee agency, and also explains how.
Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sudan: The number of displaced people and refugees worldwide has risen to a record. Around 110 million people are currently fleeing, two-thirds of them in their home countries, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva. The organization demands more efforts to combat the causes of flight and to support those who are fleeing. In June 2022, around 100 million people were fleeing.
The numbers are devastating, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. “It’s an indictment of the state of our world,” he said. There are more and more crises, but hardly any solutions. For 5.7 million internally displaced persons, the flight ended last year, but only 340,000 refugees returned to their homeland from abroad.
Migration and flight should not be lumped together, said Grandi. If richer countries offered more legal avenues of immigration for people seeking work in countries other than their homeland, fewer migrants would apply for asylum, he said. Asylum and similar protection is reserved for people fleeing war, conflict, persecution and violence. According to the UN Refugee Convention, all countries are obliged to accept them.
Asylum systems are overloaded
Because there are no legal migration routes, the asylum systems are overburdened, said Grandi. However, the authorities do not recognize the reasons given for many asylum seekers to flee. Those in need of protection fell into disrepute, said Grandi. In Germany in 2022, almost 230,000 asylum decisions were rejected by almost 50,000 people. Around 50,000 other cases were settled – for example because people were registered in other countries or withdrew applications.
Grandi expressed fears that the current crisis in Sudan could spread. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have found shelter in neighboring countries. But the east of the country is known to be the territory of people smugglers. If law and order isn’t restored in Sudan soon, these smugglers could put Sudanese on escape routes “to Libya and beyond,” Grandi said.
Many refugee boats leave for Europe from the Mediterranean state of Libya. In Sudan there has been a power struggle between troops of the de facto president and his previous deputy since mid-April. According to the UN, almost 1.9 million people have fled since the violence began.
“Application for asylum is not a crime”
The UNHCR gave the current number of refugees. The annual report “Global Trends”, which it published at the same time, looks at the refugee situation in the previous year. According to UNHCR, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 triggered the fastest movement of refugees since World War II: According to the report, 5.7 million people had been displaced within Ukraine’s borders or fled abroad by the end of 2022. At the end of 2022, a total of 108.4 million people were fleeing persecution, war, violence, human rights violations and the consequences of climate change, 19.1 million more than a year earlier.
A good third of the displaced persons fled abroad. Of these, two-thirds were in low- and middle-income countries. They usually stay in countries neighboring their homeland in the hope of returning home soon. It is a myth that the refugees are mainly going to rich countries in Europe or North America, said Grandi. Turkey was hosting the most refugees at the end of 2022, followed by Iran, where mostly Afghans were staying, Colombia and Germany.
Grandi praised the planned reform of the EU asylum system. In the future, the EU wants to hold asylum seekers who arrive from a country that is considered relatively safe in a reception facility under conditions similar to detention after crossing the border. After a quick examination of the applications, those that are rejected should be sent back immediately. Not everything is perfect, but at least the EU has agreed on something, said Grandi. He added: “We clearly believe that asylum seekers should not be put in prison. Applying for asylum is not a crime.”