Chapter 1 70 10 9 60 8 50 7 6 40 5 30 4 3 20 2 10 1 0 0 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 Internally displaced persons ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 UNRWA refugees The levels of new displacements in 2017 continued to far outstrip any returns or other solutions. During the year, 16.2 million people were newly displaced, including 4.4 million who sought protection abroad 6 and 11.8 million who were forced to flee but remained in their own countries.7 In 2017 an average of some 44,400 people were newly displaced every day [Figure 2], a higher rate than seen even in 2014. At the same time, many others returned to their countries or areas of origin to try to rebuild their lives, including 4.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and at least 667,400 refugees. As in previous years, the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) continued to account for the largest forcibly displaced population globally. As of the end of 2017, there were 12.6 million forcibly displaced Syrians, comprising around 6.3 million refugees, 146,700 asylum-seekers, and 6.2 million IDPs. Colombia had the second-largest displaced population with 7.9 million victims of conflict, the majority of whom were IDPs (7.7 million). 8 The DRC was the third-largest displacement situation with 5.1 million Congolese forcibly displaced, comprising 4.4 million IDPs, 620,800 refugees and 136,400 asylum-seekers. Some 4.8 million Afghans 6 Proportion displaced (number displaced per 1,000 world population) Displaced population (millions) Figure 1 | Trend of global displacement and proportion displaced | 2007-2017 ‘13 UNHCR refugees ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 Asylum-seekers ‘17 Proportion displaced remained forcibly displaced, of whom 1.8 million were IDPs and 3.0 million were refugees or asylumseekers. Other large displaced populations at the end of 2017 included people from South Sudan (4.4 million), Iraq (3.3 million), Somalia (3.2 million), Sudan (2.7 million), Yemen (2.1 million), Nigeria (2.0 million), and Ukraine (2.0 million). The situations in the DRC and Myanmar deteriorated rapidly in the second half of 2017, affecting millions of people. The flight of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh occurred at a particularly rapid rate. Over 2017, 655,500 arrived in Bangladesh, mainly concentrated in 100 days from the end of August, 9 making the humanitarian response very challenging. In addition, there was a large proportion of infants, children, and pregnant women among refugees and IDPs from the DRC and Myanmar, adding a further layer of complexity for interventions. 6 Consisting of 1.7 million new individual claims for asylum and 2.7 million new refugees recognized on a prima facie or group basis. 7 Based on a global estimate from IDMC. 8 The large number of registered IDPs in Colombia comes from the total cumulative figure recorded in the Government’s Victims Registry, which commenced in 1985. 9 See: http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/12/5a1c313a4/100days-horror-hope-timeline-rohingya-crisis.html. unhcr > Global trends 2017