Chapter 2 By regions of asylum Figure 6 | Refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad by UNHCR region | end-year 25 (in millions) 20 15 10 5 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2016 2017 East and Horn of Africa Southern Africa West and Central Africa Asia and Pacific Europe (incl. Turkey) Middle East/North Africa The number of refugees increased in every region over the last decade. The Middle East, North Africa and Europe all felt the impact of the war in Syria, which left 6.6 million people living in displacement at the end of 2019. The majority were hosted in Turkey (3.6 million), Lebanon (910,600) and Jordan (654,700). The rising number of refugees in the Middle East and North Africa was partly offset by a drop in the number of Iraqi refugees (from 1.6 million to 63,000), many of whom were forced to flee the conflict in Syria and return to Iraq or seek protection in other countries further afield. In Europe, the outbreak of large-scale armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 led to a large outflow of refugees in the region. At the end of 2019, there were 60,000 Ukrainian refugees worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of refugees residing across the region nearly tripled in the course of the decade, increasing from 2.2 to 6.3 million. Conflict and violence in South Sudan, the DRC, Central African Republic, Somalia and 18 2015 2018 2019 Americas Burundi forced millions of people to flee, but other crises contributed to the rise in refugees as well. In the Americas, there was a fourfold increase in the number of people displaced across borders during the decade, primarily due to the exodus from Venezuela, and the inclusion of 3.6 million Venezuelans displaced abroad in the 2019 global displacement statistics. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Central Americans fled deteriorating security conditions and violence and sought shelter across the region. The Asia and Pacific region experienced a three per cent overall increase in the number of refugees over the decade, mostly due to the outflow of 700,000 stateless refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh beginning in August 2017. While the increase has been limited, the overall figures reflect the protracted plight of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has lasted for more than 40 years. Voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan continued through the decade, but at low levels. UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019