III. Refugee population While the number of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate increased in some regions (e.g. Asia and Pacific) and decreased in others (e.g. the Middle East and North Africa), globally it remained stable at 10.4 million, with a marginal decrease of less than one per cent compared to the year earlier. The minor decrease arose from two main sources. First, a number of refugees found a durable solution during the year, in particular through voluntary repatriation and local integration. Second, estimates for the Palestinian and Iraqi refugee populations in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Syrian Arab Republic were revised downwards (-23%). Overall, decreases in the refugee population in some countries were offset by mass outflows in others due to renewed or continuing conflict, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. By the end of 2009, women and girls constituted less than half (47%) of refugees globally. (11) Developing countries hosted 8.3 million refugees, or 80 per cent of the global refugee population. The 49 least developed countries provided asylum to 1.9 million refugees. Most refugees remain within their region of origin The available statistical evidence demonstrates that most refugees flee to neighbouring countries, remaining in their region of origin. The major refugeegenerating regions hosted on average between 76 and 91 per cent of refugees from within the same region. UNHCR estimates that some 1.7 million refugees (17% out of the total of 10.4 million) live outside their region of origin. Table 2 (below) shows that more than one-third (37%) of all refugees were residing in countries covered by UNHCR’s Asia and Pacific region, with three quarters of them being Afghans. SubSaharan Africa was host to one-fifth of all refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Sudan. The Middle East and North Africa region Protracted refugee hosted 19 per cent of the world’s refugees, mainly from Iraq, while situations Europe’s share was 16 per cent. In Europe, refugees from Iraq, Serbia, UNHCR defines a protracted and Turkey were the largest groups. The Americas region had the refugee situation as one in which smallest share of refugees (8%), with Colombians constituting the largest 25,000 or more refugees of the number. same nationality have been in exile for five years or longer in any given asylum country. Based on this definition, it is estimated that some 5.5 million refugees were in a protracted situation by end 2009. These refugees were living in 21 host countries accounting for a total of 25 protracted situations globally. A decrease in the number of refugees was observed in the Middle East and North Africa region, where figures dropped by 15 per cent during the year. This decrease, however, was primarily the result of a revised estimate for Palestinian refugees in Saudi Arabia rather than due to population movements. In the absence of a reliable and accurate figure for Palestinian refugees in Saudi Arabia, the previously reported figure of 240,000 Palestinian refugees was removed from UNHCR statistics. Government figures for Iraqi refugees in Jordan and in the Syrian Arab Republic were revised downward by 50,000 each, based on the presumption that a number of Iraqis left either to return to Iraq or move onward to other countries. The overall decrease in the number of refugees in the region was partly offset by the arrival of 32,000 Somali refugees in Yemen. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of refugees continued to decline for the ninth consecutive year. By the end of 2009, there were less than 2.1 million refugees compared to more than 3.4 million in 2000. The refugee population decreased by 1.5 per cent between the start and end of 2009, primarily due to the naturalization of 155,000 Burundian refugees in the United Republic of Tanzania(12) and successful voluntary repatriation operations to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (44,300), Southern Sudan (33,100), Burundi (32,400), and Rwanda (20,600). Unfortunately, renewed armed conflict and human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia led to new refugee outflows and the movement of 277,000 people primarily to the Republic of the Congo (94,000) and Kenya (72,500). 11 12 See Chapter V for more details on the demographic composition of refugees. At the time of writing, further naturalizations of Burundian refugees had brought the total to more than 162,000. 6 2009 Global Trends