Number of people newly displaced per minute
Fig.2 Newly displaced persons per minute | 2003 - 2015 (end-year)
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
compared to 2014, this figure remains substantially
higher than in previous years.
During the second half of 2015, Europe witnessed
a dramatic increase in the number of refugees and
migrants arriving by sea. Hundreds of thousands of individuals embarked on a dangerous journey, crossing
the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe in an effort to
find safety. Overall, more than 1 million people arrived
by sea in 2015, a more than fourfold increase compared to the previous year’s 216,000 arrivals.7 This
rise was due mostly to increased movement across
the eastern Mediterranean to Greece; about half of
the people originated from the Syrian Arab Republic,
but those from Afghanistan and Iraq also accounted
for a significant proportion. In addition, thousands
of individuals died or were reported missing during
these crossings.
Conflicts in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq have
significantly contributed to the rise in the global number of displaced people. By the end of 2015 there
were close to 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide, an
increase of 1 million men, women, and children within
a year. The vast majority of these newly displaced
Syrians were registered in Turkey (946,800 individuals), and as a result Turkey hosted the largest refugee
population in the world – some 2.54 million people,
7
Source for sea arrivals: UNHCR Information Portal:
Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response – Mediterranean
http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/.
8
Source for population size: United Nations, Population Division,
World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, New York, 2015.
15
20
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20
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20
12
20
11
20
10
20
09
20
08
20
07
20
06
20
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20
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20
20
03
0
mostly from the Syrian Arab Republic. This was the
second consecutive year that Turkey has hosted the
world’s largest refugee population.
While much international attention has focused
on refugees arriving in Europe, during 2015 another
protection crisis unfolded in Central America that has
affected the immediate region and North America.
Increasing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras forced thousands of women, men, and children to leave their homes in 2015, mainly to Mexico
and the United States. The number of refugees and
asylum-seekers with pending cases from these three
Central American countries increased from 20,900
people in 2012 to 109,800 people in 2015. Although
these numbers are far smaller than some of the refugee crises in Africa and the Middle East, they represent a more than fivefold increase in just three years.
The situation in Yemen continued to deteriorate in
2015, triggering particularly large-scale internal displacement. As of end-2015, 169,900 individuals had
fled to neighbouring countries and about 2.5 million
people were internally displaced during the year –
more than in any other country by a significant margin, especially considering Yemen’s total population.
This proportion is reflected in the fact that nearly 10
per cent of the country’s population of 26.8 million8
has been displaced in just a year; indeed, internally
displaced people represent nearly the entire population of concern originating from Yemen. Additionally,
some 267,200 refugees from other countries were
UNHCR Global Trends 2015 07