Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger | 15
The number of newly displaced persons has tripled since 2010 Average number of newly displaced persons* per day, 2003–2013
32,000
35,000
30,000
10,900
12,500
13,000
More than half of the world’s refugees nowadays are housed in urban areas and not in camps, compared to approximately only one third a decade ago.
14,200
22,200
5,000
7,900
10,800
11,400
15,000
15,800
20,000
10,000
23,300
25,000
13
12
20
11
20
10
20
09
20
20
08
07
20
06
20
05
20
04
20
20
03
0
20
Developing countries, many of them poverty stricken, continue to shoulder the largest burden. They hosted 86 per cent of refugees under the UNHCR mandate, compared to 70 per cent a decade ago. Afghanistan (2.55 million), the Syrian Arab Republic (2.47 million) and Somalia (1.12 million) were the three main source countries of refugees under UNHCR responsibility, accounting for more than half of the total. The Syrian Arab Republic became a main source of refugees during 2013 as a result of the dramatic humanitarian situation in that country.
* Displaced internally or across international borders.
The year 2013 was marked by a continuation of multiple refugee crises, resulting in numbers unseen since 1994. Conflicts during the year such as those in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the border area between South Sudan and Sudan, among others, have forced an average 32,000 people per day to abandon their homes and seek protection elsewhere. By the end of 2013, a record high of 51 million people were displaced forcibly worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence and humanrights violations. These displaced consisted of 16.7 million refugees, of whom 11.7 million fell under the responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 5 million were Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). An additional more than 1.1 million individuals were waiting for decisions on their asylum applications by year-end. Another 33.3 million people uprooted by violence and persecution remained within the borders of their own countries.