Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2020

CHAPTER 1

Global forced displacement

More than 82 million people around the world are forcibly displaced.

The year 2020 will be remembered as a year without equal. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all facets of life, causing millions of deaths around the world and causing human suffering, economic recession, restrictions on human mobility, and severe limitations in everyday life.

Although the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cross-border migration and displacement more broadly globally is still unclear, UNHCR data shows that arrivals of new refugees and asylum-seekers were drastically reduced by most regions (about 1.5 million people less than would have been expected in a situation without the influence of COVID-19), and reflect the helpless situation of many of those seeking international protection in 2020 (see Figure 1 by region) .10 Similarly, the United Nations estimates that the pandemic may have reduced the number of international migrants by about two million globally during the first six months of the year.This corresponds to a decrease of around 27% in the expected number of international migrants for the period between July 2019 and June 2020.

People were forced to flee their homes throughout the year, despite the urgent call that the UN Secretary General made on March 23, 2020, calling for a global ceasefire to allow a coordinated response. pandemic.12 By the end of 2020, the number of people forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events that seriously disrupted public order had reached 82.4 million, the figure highest recorded according to available data.13 This figure represents more than double the level of a decade ago (which was 41 million in 2010, see Figure 2), and a 4% increase from the 2019 total, which was of 79.5 million. As a consequence, currently more than 1% of the world’s population, that is, 1 in 95 people is forcibly displaced. By comparison, in 2010 they were 1 in 159.

Several crises, some new, others that resurfaced after years, forced people to flee within or outside the borders of their country. Afghanistan,

Somalia and Yemen remained hotbeds, while the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) dragged on into its 10th year. In the Sahel region of Africa, nearly three-quarters of a million people have recently been displaced in what is perhaps the world’s most complex regional crisis. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), atrocities committed by armed groups led UNHCR partners to document the killing of more than 2,000 civilians in its three eastern provinces.

In Ethiopia, more than a million people were internally displaced during the year, while more than 54,000 fled the Tigray region to eastern Sudan. In northern Mozambique, hundreds of thousands of people fled deadly violence, and civilians witnessed massacres by non-state armed groups in various villages, including beheadings, and abductions of women and children. The outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan was a devastating blow to the civilian population of both countries and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Measures put in place by governments to limit the spread of COVID-19, including movement restrictions and border closures, made it significantly difficult for people fleeing war and persecution to access safety. However, despite the pandemic, several states have found ways to preserve some form of access to territory for people seeking international protection. Uganda, for example, has accepted thousands of refugees from the DRC while ensuring that necessary health measures, including quarantine, are also taken.

In 2020, an estimated 11.2 million became newly displaced, a total that includes both first-time and repeatedly displaced people. This figure includes 1.4 million people who sought protection outside their country, 14 in addition to 9.8 million new displacements within countries.15 This figure exceeds the total of 11.0 million registered in 2019.

Due to the closure of borders decreed by many governments for long periods and restrictions on internal mobility, only a limited number of refugees and internally displaced persons were able to access solutions such as voluntary return or resettlement in a third country. Some 251,000 refugees were able to return to their country of origin in 2020, with the assistance of UNHCR or spontaneously. This is the third lowest figure in the last decade, and follows a downward trend compared to the previous two years. Impediments to return in many countries of origin include ongoing insecurity, lack of essential services, and lack of livelihood opportunities.

In the initial phase of the pandemic, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) suspended resettlement departures for several months amid border and travel restrictions around the world. While these activities were subsequently resumed, in 2020, only 34,400 refugees were resettled in third countries, two-thirds of them with the assistance of UNHCR. This figure, compared with 107,800 the previous year, represents a drastic decrease of 69%, at a time when an estimated 1.4 million refugees are in need of resettlement.

Refugees are not the only forcibly displaced people who have trouble accessing solutions. Compared to 2019, 40% fewer IDPs (3.2 million compared to 5.3 million in 2019) were able to return to their place of residence, leaving millions of them in a situation of prolonged displacement. Almost half of all IDP returns were concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.4 million).

The conflict in Syria has raged for a full decade, and more than half of its population remains forcibly displaced, representing by far the largest forcibly displaced population in the world (13.5 million , including more than 6.7 million internally displaced people). If only the situations of international displacement are considered, people of Syrian nationality also topped the list, with 6.8 million people, followed by those of Venezuelan nationality, with 4.9 million.16 Then follow those of Afghan and South Sudanese nationality. , with 2.8 and 2.2 million respectively (see Graph 3).

There were no changes compared to 2019 with respect to the top five countries hosting the most people displaced across borders.18 Turkey reported the highest number, with just under 4 million people, in its majority Syrian refugees (92%). Colombia followed, hosting more than 1.7 million displaced Venezuelans. Germany hosted the third largest number of people, almost 1.5 million, among whom Syrian refugees and asylum seekers made up the largest groups (44%). Pakistan and Uganda ranked 4th and 5th, with about 1.4 million people each (see Figure 4).

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees