Map 2
Main source countries of refugees | end-2009
Major refugee origin
> 500,000
250,000 to 500,000
100,000 to 250,000
10,000 to 100,000
< 10,000
Jordan (14) reported 594,000 and 451,000 refugees, respectively, at year end. In Germany figures
remained fairly stable (+2%), whereas in Jordan the estimate for the Iraqi refugee population was
revised downwards by 50,000 to account for estimated departures from the country. Kenya was the
sixth largest hosting country at the end of 2009 with close to 360,000 refugees. The figure increased
by more than 38,000 during the year (+12%), mainly as a result of new arrivals from Somalia. In Chad,
the refugee population increased to 338,500 by the end of 2009 (+2%) due to new arrivals from the
Central African Republic and Sudan.
In the United Republic of Tanzania, the largest
refugee-hosting country in Africa between 1997
and 2007, the refugee population dropped by
more than 200,000 people to 118,700 (-63%)
due to the naturalization of 155,000 Burundian
refugees and the voluntary repatriation of more
than 30,000 refugees from Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a
consequence, the United Republic of
Tanzania’s ranking as a host country fell from
7th place in 2008 to 21st in 2009. Overall, figures
in the United Republic of Tanzania have gone
down by 83 per cent since 2002, when the
country was host to close to 700,000 refugees.
Fig 3
Major source countries of refugees
End-2009
2,887,100
Afghanistan *
1,785,200
Iraq
Somalia
678,300
Dem. Rep. of Congo
455,900
Myanmar *
406,700
Colombia *
389,800
Sudan
368,200
Viet Nam **
339,300
Eritrea
209,200
Serbia
195,600
* Includes people in a refugee-like situation
Afghanistan has been the leading country of
** The 300,000 Vietnamese refugees are well integrated and in
origin of refugees for the past three decades practice receive protection from the Government of China.
with up to 6.4 million of its citizens having
sought international protection during peak years. As of the end of 2009, close to 2.9 million Afghan
were still refugees. One out of four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan. Even though Afghan
refugees could be found in 71 asylum countries worldwide in 2009, 96 per cent of them were located in
Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran alone. Iraqis were the second largest group, with an
14
Number of Iraqis in Jordan estimated by the Government.
8 2009 Global Trends