Chapter 5
Figure 22 | Resettled and returning refugees | 2010 – 2019
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Refugees returning
Returns
Returning home in safety and dignity remains
the preferred solution for the majority of the
world’s refugees. Over the last decade, some
3.9 million refugees returned to their country of
origin. Voluntary return was at its lowest in 2014,
when only 126,800 people were able to go home.
The peak came in 2018, when 593,800 were
able to return. Nearly one quarter of returnees
during the decade (875,800 or 23 per cent) were
Afghan. Afghanistan today has a population of
about 38 million people 58 and about one fifth
are former refugees who have returned home in
the last two decades. Nevertheless, only 8,400
Afghans returned in 2019, one of the lowest levels
recorded in many years. Almost three-quarters of
all refugee returns during the last decade were to
one of the ten countries shown in Figure 23.
In 2019, 317,200 refugees returned to 34
countries, most commonly to South Sudan (99,800
or 31%), Syria (95,000 or 30%) and the Central
African Republic (46,500 or 15%).
58 Source: https://population.un.org/wpp2019/Download/Standard/
Population/
50
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Refugees resettled
Close to 383,100 Syrians returned to their country
between 2017 and 2019. UNHCR does not
promote refugee returns to Syria. Returns have
been spontaneous or organized by host countries
or other humanitarian actors assisting returnees
through ongoing programmes. Since 2017, UNHCR
has conducted five return perception and intention
surveys among Syrians, the latest of which was
published in March 2019.59 Conducted in Egypt,
Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, the survey canvassed
more than 13,000 Syrian refugees, out of a
total of 1.9 million. From late 2017 to early 2019,
the estimated percentage of Syrian refugees
hoping to return increased from 51 to 75 per cent.
Nevertheless, only 6 per cent of those surveyed
intended to return during the following 12 months.
Of the remainder, only 1 in 5 intended to move to a
third country, highlighting that return remains the
preferred solution for the vast majority of Syrians
surveyed. Some 47,800 Syrians from these four
countries (3 per cent of the refugees hosted) have
been resettled to a third country with UNHCR’s
assistance during the same period.
59 See https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/68443
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019