Chapter 2
Figure 9 | People displaced across borders by host country | end-year
2010
2019
1,900,600
Pakistan
Islamic Rep. of Iran
Syria
Germany
Colombia
1,005,500
Pakistan
1,419,600
Uganda
1,359,500
594,300
1,771,900
Jordan
450,900
Germany
1,146,700
Kenya
402,900
Sudan
1,055,500
Chad
347,900
Islamic Rep. of Iran
979,400
China
301,000
Lebanon
916,200
United States
264,600
Bangladesh
854,800
United Kingdom
238,200
Ethiopia
229,300
Jordan
Bangladesh
Sudan
178,300
Chad
733,100
693,700
442,700
Ethiopia
154,300
Kenya
438,900
Uganda
135,800
United States
341,700
Turkey
10,000
China
Lebanon
8,100
United Kingdom
Colombia
200
By country of asylum
At the end of the decade, as at the start, just ten
countries hosted nearly 3 in 5 of those displaced
across borders. However, only Pakistan, Germany
and the Islamic Republic of Iran held a position in
the top 10 at both the beginning and the end of the
decade. In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran
and Pakistan, it is due to the protracted situation
of Afghan refugees in their country. The refugee
population in Germany has been influenced by the
refugee crises in Europe in 2015 and 2016, when
more than one million people applied for asylum,
many of who were recognized as refugees or
granted complementary forms of protection.
Developing regions30 continued to shoulder a
disproportionately large responsibility for hosting
displaced populations. Nine of the ten countries
hosting the largest populations of refugees and
Venezuelans displaced abroad were in developing
regions. Some 85 per cent of these populations
lived in these countries.
The Least Developed Countries31 – including
Bangladesh, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the
30 See: unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ for a list of countries
included under each region.
31 See: unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ for a list of Least
Developed Countries.
22
3,579,500
Turkey
1,073,400
Syria
303,400
133,100
16,200
Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan,
the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and
Yemen – were home to 13 per cent of the world’s
population. Accounting for just 1.2 per cent of the
global Gross Domestic Product, 32 they had the
least amount of resources available to meet the
needs of people seeking refuge. Yet together they
hosted 6.6 million, 27 per cent of the global total
of refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad.
The three most common countries of asylum
hosted people almost exclusively from one single
country: Turkey, with 3.6 million Syrians; Colombia,
with 1.8 million Venezuelans; and Pakistan, with 1.4
million Afghans.
Geographic proximity is an important factor for
people fleeing conflict and persecution. Over
the last decade, the vast majority of refugees
remained close to their country of origin. In
any given year, three-quarters of refugees or
more were hosted by countries neighbouring
their countries of origin (see Figure 10). For
Venezuelans displaced abroad, just over half
(53%) remained in neighbouring countries, with
others moving onwards to other countries in the
region, including Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina
and Panama.
32 Source: https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019