Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Who are included in the statistics? Refugees include individuals recognized under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, the refugee definition contained in the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees as incorporated into national laws, those recognized in accordance with the UNHCR Statute, individuals granted complementary forms of protection, and those enjoying temporary protection. The refugee population also includes people in refugee-like situations. Asylum-seekers (with “pending cases”) are individuals who have sought international protection and whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined. Those covered in this report refer to claimants whose individual applications were pending at the end of 2018, irrespective of when those claims may have been lodged. Internally displaced persons are people or groups of people who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural or man-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border. For the purposes of UNHCR’s statistics, this population includes only conflict-generated IDPs to whom the Office extends protection and/or assistance. The IDP population also includes people in an IDP-like situation. Returned refugees are former refugees who have returned to their countries of origin, either spontaneously or in an organized fashion, but are yet to be fully integrated. Such returns normally would take place only under conditions of safety and dignity. For the purposes of this report, only refugees who returned between January and December 2018 are included, although in practice operations may assist returnees for longer periods. unhcr > Global trends 2018 Returned IDPs refers to those IDPs who were beneficiaries of UNHCR’s protection and assistance activities, and who returned to their areas of origin or habitual residence between January and December 2018. In practice, however, operations may assist IDP returnees for longer periods. Individuals under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate are defined under international law as those not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. In other words, they do not possess the nationality of any State. UNHCR statistics refer to people who fall under the organization’s statelessness mandate as those who are stateless according to this international definition, but data from some countries may also include people with undetermined nationality. UNHCR has been given a global mandate by the United Nations General Assembly to contribute to the prevention and reduction of statelessness and to the identification and the protection of stateless persons. UNHCR also works with populations at risk of statelessness in line with its mandate to prevent statelessness but these population groups are not reflected in this statistical report Other groups or persons of concern refers to individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of these groups but to whom UNHCR has extended its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds. Venezuelans displaced abroad refers to persons who are likely to be refugees of Venezuelan origin but who do not apply for asylum in the country in which they are present. UNHCR considers that the majority of Venezuelans nationals or stateless persons who were habitually resident in Venezuela are in need of international protection under the criteria contained in the Cartagena Declaration on the basis of threats to their lives, security or freedom resulting from events that are currently seriously disturbing public order in Venezuela. ■ 63