19.8 million Refugees in 2002

One out of every 300 persons on Earth was a Refugee 

UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Global Report 2002

The Year in Review

2002 was a year in which UNHCR achieved successes in some areas but was thwarted by different obstacles in others. In many operations, notably in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, there was little sign of resolution of long-standing refugee situations. Nevertheless, UNHCR pursued efforts under its mandate to provide international protection for some 20.8 million persons of concern. Ironically, one of the Office’s greatest challenges was securing sufficient, predictable and timely funding.

On the positive side, the return of some two million Afghans to their home country was the largest repatriation of refugees for over three decades. This has brought enormous changes to Afghanistan and opened the way for its reconstruction, thereby giving hope for the sustainability of the returns. Other significant developments were the new peace agreements in Angola, Sierra Leone and in Sri Lanka. After nearly 30 years of war, almost 100,000 Angolan refugees from neighbouring countries repatriated spontaneously. An organised repatriation of Angolans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia and Zambia is to start in May 2003.

In January 2002, Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war was declared officially over. An unprecedented humanitarian, political and military effort by the international community helped to strengthen the peace process, heralding an era of cautious optimism. National parliamentary and presidential elections were held successfully in mid-year. There were noticeable improvements in the security situation as the Government gradually took responsibility for ensuring that forces were in place to secure stability. During the year, the disarmament and demobilisation of former combatants was completed throughout the country.

In Asia, there was a successful repatriation of 31,000 individuals to Timor-Leste during the year of its independence. The cease-fire in Sri Lanka in February 2002 brought an end to 20 years of hostilities and resulted in more than 300,000 IDPs spontaneously returning home.

On the negative side, millions of refugees lingered in protracted refugee situations in south west Algeria, Nepal and Tanzania with no clear prospects of durable solutions. In Liberia, the ongoing conflict led to thousands having to flee for their lives, some for the third or fourth time in a 10-year period. Côte d'Ivoire, a country long considered as a generous host to more than 100,000 refugees and millions of migrants, was plunged into political conflict. The results had disastrous repercussions for 35,000 Ivorians who fled into neighbouring countries, and for over 40,000 (mainly Liberian) refugees who had to be repatriated in great haste from the country. Similarly, in Burundi, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, refugees were on the move once again to escape conflict and general insecurity.

In Colombia, hostilities continued with increased intensity and no solution seemed to be in sight following the breakdown of the formal peace talks between the Government and the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias) in February 2002. Thousands of civilians then crossed borders in search of protection. In the Balkans, more than two million persons have returned home in the last few years. By the end of 2002, the main focus shifted from the refugees to reconstruction as the Office had to implement its phase out strategy. While the primary responsibility for providing international protection and assistance for the refugees lies with the governments of host countries, UNHCR has a worldwide mandate and continues to support the efforts of these countries in co-operation with other partners. In the ongoing search for solutions to end protracted refugee situations, the High Commissioner introduced the concepts of “4 Rs” (Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction) and Development through Local Integration (DLI). These are designed to ensure poverty reduction and create good local governance through the overarching framework of institutional partnerships.

Addressing the shortcomings of many asylum systems was one of the objectives of the Global Consultations on International Protection, which formally drew to a close in May 2002. These Consultations were UNHCR’s contribution to reinvigorating support for the international refugee protection framework by developing new tools and arrangements to buttress the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. This process has given rise to the Agenda for Protection. The Agenda is a multi-year programme of action for States, UNHCR, NGOs, and other partners, aimed at improving the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees worldwide.

In the context of furthering the Agenda, in 2002, the High Commissioner launched the “Convention Plus” initiative, a means of furnishing tools for protection, in the form of developing multilateral special agreements and arrangements to complement the 1951 Convention. These are meant to ensure improved burden-sharing to find durable solutions for refugees.

In the wake of allegations, in February 2002, of sexual violence and exploitation of refugee children in West Africa, the year saw a major drive within UNHCR to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence. The High Commissioner announced a policy of “zero tolerance” of such acts and UNHCR adopted a Code of Conduct for its staff, as well as for staff of implementing partners.

The Office embarked on the implementation of the UNHCR HIV/AIDS strategic plan 2002-2004. It aims to put at the disposal of refugees in all countries where UNHCR operates the essential services to combat the pandemic.

During the year, the Supplementary Programme for Afghanistan, amounting to some USD 271 million, for a period of 15 months (the last quarter of 2001 and the whole of 2002), was fully funded. This was a great achievement that gave both encouraging support to UNHCR and due recognition to the crucial needs of the millions of returnees, IDPs and local populations in Afghanistan. However, it also resulted in a significant downward trend in the funding of the Annual Programme Budget. This meant that the Office, once again, had to manage a shortfall of more than USD 100 million in the Annual Programme Budget.

The time and energy spent to manage the financial fluctuations and chronic uncertainty about the organisation’s funding base are considerable. Surely, UNHCR could do more to improve the positive impact of its work if it did not have to spend so much effort and precious resources on managing budgetary shortfalls and on minimising the negative impact of the latter on those it strives to protect.

source: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.pdf?id=3edf4ff57&tbl=MEDIA  12jun03

In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 5,000 people in more than 120 countries continues to help an estimated 19.8 million persons.

http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/basics 

Introduction

At the start of 2002 the number of people ‘of concern’ to UNHCR was 19.8 million—roughly one out of every 300 persons on Earth—compared with 21.8 million a year earlier.

The overall decrease of two million people reflected two conflicting trends: huge groups fleeing their homes during the year, but even greater numbers of uprooted persons returning from exile.

As conflict continued to grip many parts of the world, nearly 200,000 Afghans joined 3.5 million countrymen already living abroad as refugees, 188,000 Africans fled to neighboring countries as did 93,000 citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). An additional 511,000 civilians became ‘internally displaced persons’ (so-called IDPs) within Afghanistan, 190,500 in Colombia and 112,000 in Liberia.

However, there were also encouraging developments. More than one million Eritrean, 80,000 Bosnian and 42,000 Burundi IDPs went home as did 267,000 African refugees and an estimated 160,000 FYROM citizens. There was a decrease of 700,000 so-called stateless persons, mainly in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the number of refugees returning home but still needing assistance almost halved from nearly 800,000 in 2000 to 462,700 in 2001.

The number of people seeking asylum worldwide dropped slightly during the reporting period, from 1,092,000 in 2000 to 923,000 in 2001 with the majority of claimants coming from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Yugoslavia and China.

The main host countries remained unchanged, with Pakistan sheltering 2.2 million persons, Iran 1.9 million and Germany 988,500.

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF PERSONS OF CONCERN WHO FALL UNDER THE MANDATE OF UNHCR [ by region ] 

Region			1st Jan 2001	1st Jan 2002 
Asia			8,449,900 	8,820,700 
Africa 			6,060,100 	4,173,500 
Europe 			5,592,400 	4,855,400 
Northern America 	1,051,700 	1,086,800 
Latin America & 	575,500		765,400
Caribbean 
Oceania 		84,500		81,300 
TOTAL 			21,814,200 	19,783,100

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF REFUGEES AND 
TOTAL PERSONS OF CONCERN TO UNHCR WORLDWIDE 
(all figures as at 31 December of each given year) 

Year     Refugee estimate	Persons of concern 
1980     8,439,000     		— 
1981     9,696,000 		— 
1982     10,300,000 		— 
1983     10,602,000 		— 
1984     10,710,000 		— 
1985     11,844,000 		— 
1986     12,614,000 		— 
1987     13,103,000 		— 
1988     14,319,000 		— 
1989     14,706,000 		— 
1990     17,370,000 		— 
1991     16,829,000 		— 
1992     17,802,000 		— 
1993     16,242,000 		23,033,000 
1994     15,637,000 		27,419,000 
1995     14,855,000 		26,103,000 
1996    13,312,000 		22,729,000 
1997     11,966,000 		22,376,000 
1998     11,430,000 		21,460,000 
1999     11,626,000 		22,257,000 
2000     12,062,000 		21,814,000 
2001    12,051,000 		19,783,000

Who does UNHCR help and how?

UNHCR provides protection and assistance not only to refugees, but also to other categories of displaced or needy persons. These include asylum seekers, refugees who have returned home but still need help in rebuilding their lives, local civilian communities which are directly affected by the movements of refugees and, perhaps most importantly, growing numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs). These are people who have been forced to flee their homes, but who have not reached a neighboring country and therefore, unlike refugees, are not protected by international law or eligible to receive many types of aid. As the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, with more and more internal conflicts replacing inter-state wars, the number of IDPs has increased significantly and they are now the second largest group of concern to UNHCR. The special U.N. Representative for Internally Displaced Persons estimates there are between 20-25 million IDPs worldwide, with major concentrations in Sudan, Angola, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegovina and countries of the former Soviet Union. UNHCR helps an estimated 5.3 million of these people.

Refugees: 12 million

UNHCR’s founding mandate defines refugees as persons who are outside their country and cannot return owing to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. Regional instruments such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America expanded that mandate to include persons who have fled because of war or civil conflict. A total of 144 countries have signed the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol and recognize persons as refugees based on the definitions contained in this and the regional instruments. Figures used by UNHCR are based on these definitions and include persons in Europe and other areas of the world who have been allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons and those who have been granted ‘temporary protection’ on a group basis.

ORIGIN OF MAJOR REFUGEE POPULATIONS IN 2001 [Ten largest groups¹]

Country of Origin2 	Main Countries of Asylum 			    Total 
Afghanistan 		Pakistan / Iran 				3,809,600 
Burundi 		Tanzania 					  554,000 
Iraq 			Iran 						  530,100 
Sudan 			Uganda / Ethiopia / D.R. Congo / Kenya / C.A.R.   489,500 
Angola 			Zambia / D.R. Congo / Namibia 			  470,600 
Somalia 		Kenya / Yemen / Ethiopia / USA / United Kingdom   439,900 
Bosnia-Herzegovina 	Yugoslavia / USA / Sweden / Denmark / Netherlands 426,000 
Democratic Rep. Congo 	Tanzania / Congo / Zambia / Rwanda / Burundi 	  392,100 
Viet Nam 		China / USA 					  353,200 
Eritrea 		Sudan 						  333,100

1 An estimated 3.9 million Palestinians who are covered by a separate mandate of the 
   U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are 
   not included in this report. However, Palestinians outside the UNWRA area of 
   operations such as those in Iraq or Libya, are considered to be of concern to UNHCR.
   At year-end their number was 349,100. 
2 This table includes UNHCR estimates for nationalities in industrialized countries on
  the basis of recent refugee arrivals and asylum seeker recognition.

MAJOR REFUGEE ARRIVALS DURING 2001¹

Origin 			Main Countries of Asylum 		Total 
Afghanistan 		Pakistan 				199,900 
FYR Macedonia 		Yugoslavia 				93,200 
Angola 			Zambia / D.R. Congo 			44,800 
Sudan 			Kenya / Ethiopia / Uganda / D.R. Congo	35,000 
D.R. Congo 		Tanzania / Zambia / Rwanda / Burundi 	32,700 
Central African Rep. 	D.R. Congo 				26,500 
Burundi 		Tanzania / Zambia 			15,700 
Liberia 		Côte d’Ivoire / Sierra Leone / Guinea	11,700 
Rwanda 			Uganda / Tanzania 			6,500 
Senegal 		Gambia 					2,000

1 Ten largest movements.

Returnees: 462,700

The majority of refugees prefer to and do return home as soon as circumstances permit, generally when a conflict has ended, a degree of stability has been restored and basic infrastructure is being rebuilt. UNHCR encourages voluntary repatriation as the best solution for displaced persons. The agency often provides transportation and a start-up package which could include cash grants and practical assistance such as farm tools and seeds. On occasion, it extends this help to include the rebuilding of homes, schools, clinics and roads. Field staff monitor the well-being of ‘returnees’ in delicate situations. The duration of such activities varies, but rarely lasts longer than two years when longer-term development assistance from other organizations is more appropriate. In the latest reporting period, the number of people needing help dropped by nearly one-half, from 786,000 in 2000 to 462,700. Statistics on number of returnees reflect the number of persons going home during a 12-month period.

MAJOR VOLUNTARY REPATRIATION MOVEMENTS [in 2001, by destination¹] 

Origin 			Main Countries of Asylum 			Total 
Sierra Leone 		Guinea / Liberia 				92,300 
FYR Macedonia 		Yugoslavia / Albania 				90,000 
Somalia 		Ethiopia 					51,300 
Eritrea 		Sudan 						32,700 
Burundi 		Tanzania 					27,900 
Afghanistan 		Iran / Pakistan 				26,100 
Yugoslavia 		Germany / Bosnia-Herzegovina / FYR Macedonia	25,600 
Rwanda 			D.R. Congo / Tanzania 				21,700 
Bosnia-Herzegovina	Yugoslavia / Croatia / Germany 			18,700 
East Timor 		Indonesia 					18,200

1 Ten largest movements.

Resettlement

Some refugees cannot or are unwilling to return home, usually because they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps to find them new homes, either in the asylum country where they are living or in third countries where they can be permanently resettled. Though many nations have agreed to accept refugees on a temporary basis during the early phases of a crisis, only 17 nations worldwide now participate in official resettlement programs and accept quotas of refugees on an annual basis.

MAIN COUNTRIES OF RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES [in 2001] 

Country  	 Total  
United States	68,400  
Canada  	12,200  
Australia  	 6,500  
Norway  	 1,300  
Sweden  	 1,100  
New Zealand  	   760  
Finland  	   740  
Netherlands  	   630  
Denmark  	   530  

When people flee their own country and seek sanctuary in a second state, they apply for ‘asylum’—the right to be recognized as bona fide refugees and receive the legal protection and material assistance that status implies. Approximately 923,000 people applied for asylum worldwide in 2001 compared to just over 1,092,000 in 2000, the majority coming from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Yugoslavia, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Russian Federation, Somalia and Iran. The number of asylum seekers whose cases were still pending at the end of the year was 940,800 compared to 900,700 at the beginning of 2001.

In the last five decades, several million people were granted asylum but because of such huge numbers and the increasing ease of travel and communication some states worked to 'harmonize' or toughen their domestic refugee legislation and asylum criteria, sometimes resulting in a decrease in recognition rates.

During the 1990s Balkan crises and subsequent emergencies, when millions of people fled their homes, UNHCR recognized the outflow of such large numbers could overwhelm the asylum process in receiving countries. The agency suggested a simpler and faster process of offering the arrivals ‘temporary protection' insisting, however, that asylum remained the cornerstone of it's mandate to protect refugees.

ASYLUM APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN SELECTED INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES [in 2001] 

Country of Asylum   Main Countries of Origin  						Total  
United Kingdom      Afghanistan / Iraq / Somalia / Sri Lanka / Yugoslavia  		88,300  
Germany  	    Iraq / Turkey / Yugoslavia / Afghanistan / Russian Fed.  		88,290  
United States2      Mexico / China / Colombia / Haiti / Armenia  			86,180  
France  	    Turkey / D.R. Congo / China / Mali / Algeria  			47,290  
Canada  	    Hungary / Pakistan / Sri Lanka / Zimbabwe / China  			44,040  
Netherlands  	    Angola / Afghanistan / Sierra Leone / Iran / Guinea  		32,580  
Austria  	    Afghanistan / Iraq / Turkey / India / Yugoslavia  			30,140  
Belgium		    Russian Fed. / Yugoslavia / Algeria / D.R. Congo / Iran  		24,550  
Sweden  	    Iraq / Yugoslavia / Bosnia-Herzegovina / Russian Fed. / Iran  	23,520  
Switzerland  	    Yugoslavia / Turkey / Bosnia-Herzegovina / Iraq / FYR Macedonia	20,630  
Czech Republic      Ukraine / Moldova / Romania / Viet Nam / India  			18,090  
Norway  	    Russian Fed. / Croatia / Somalia / Iraq / Ukraine  			14,780  
Denmark  	    Afghanistan / Iraq / Bosnia-Herzegovina / Yugoslavia / Somalia  	12,400  
Australia  	    Afghanistan / Iraq / China / Indonesia / Fiji  			12,370  
Ireland  	    Nigeria / Romania / Moldova / Ukraine / Russian Fed.  		10,330  
 
1 Countries with more than 10,000 asylum applications.
2 Estimated by UNHCR on the basis of 1.4 asylum applicants per application.

IDPs and Others of Concern: 6.3 million

UNHCR extends protection or assistance to certain groups who were not included in the Office’s original mandate, but whom the U.N. Secretary-General or the U.N. General Assembly have requested the agency to assist. They include certain groups of war-affected populations, ‘stateless’ citizens of the former Soviet Union who have not been able to obtain the nationality of any of the new countries which emerged after the dissolution of the USSR, and an estimated 5.3 million internally displaced persons. These so-called IDPs are the fastest-growing group of uprooted persons in the world. Because they, in effect, ‘fall between the cracks’ of current humanitarian law and assistance, a widespread international debate has been underway for several years on how best to help all IDPs and who should be responsible for their well-being.

The number of IDPs of concern to UNHCR dropped by more than 800,000 during the year, but this overall figure reflected two opposing trends. Well over one million mainly Eritreans, Bosnians and Burundis returned home, but on the downside 511,000 more Afghans and 190,500 Colombians, among others, were newly uprooted, bringing the total of displaced persons in those two countries alone to nearly two million.

ESTIMATES OF MAJOR POPULATIONS OF IDPs OF CONCERN TO UNHCR
[at 1ST January 2002]

Numbers at a glance

• At the start of the year 2002, the number of people of concern to UNHCR was 19.8 million. They included 12 million refugees (61%), 940,800 asylum seekers (5%), 462,700 returned refugees (3%), 5.3 million internally displaced persons (25%), 241,000 returned IDPs (1%) and 1 million others of concern (5%).
• The figure of 19.8 million uprooted persons was a fall of two million compared with the previous year and reflected two conflicting trends: while large groups of people continued to be uprooted, even larger numbers, especially IDPs, returned home.
• The global refugee population of 12 million remained virtually unchanged from the previous year, with half a million people fleeing their countries during 2001 and nearly as many going home.
• At the end of 2001, Asia hosted the largest refugee population (48.3%), followed by Africa (27.5%), Europe (18.3%) North America (5%), Oceania (0.6%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (0.3%).
• When all persons of concern to UNHCR are included, Asia hosted 44.6%, Africa 21.1%, Europe 24.6%, North America 5.5%, Latin America and the Caribbean 3.8% and Oceania 0.4%.
• During 2001, nearly 500,000 refugees returned to their home country. Almost 100,000 refugees were resettled in 2001, including around 30,000 people assisted by UNHCR, a 25% agency decrease compared to 2000.
• Currently, an estimated 7.7 million people under UNHCR’s care are children below the age of 18. The percentage of children compared with the overall refugee population ranges from 57 percent in Central Africa to 20 percent in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Refugees above 60 years of age constitute more than 15 percent of the refugee population in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, whereas in Africa they generally represent less than 5 percent of the refugee population.
• In most regions, women and girls of all ages constitute between 45-55 percent of the refugee population.
• The number of asylum applications submitted in 30, mostly industrialized countries rose from 570,100 in 2000 to 614,100 in 2001. The 7.2% increase was largely because of a higher number of applications in North America and Central Europe. The number of applications in the European Union fell 2 % from 391,460 to 384,530.
• Compared to the size of the national population, the main refugee hosting countries during 2001 were Armenia, with 70 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Congo (40 per 1,000), Yugoslavia (38 per 1,000), Djibouti (37 per 1,000) and Zambia (27 per 1,000).

Basic Facts: as of 1st July 2002

• Number of UNHCR offices worldwide including Headquarters: 268 in 114 countries
• UNHCR staff members, including short-term staff: 5,523
• Staff members in the field: 4,654 (84% of total)
• Ratio of staff members to people of concern to UNHCR: 1 per 3,582
• Total UNHCR budget for 2002: US$ 1,044.5 million
• Total budget for 2001: US$ 925.4 million
• Number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working as implementing partners in July 2002: 510
• Total number of NGOs as implementing partners in 2001: 573
• States party to the 1951 Convention and/or to the 1967 Protocol: 144

source: UNHCR 12jun03

• Statistics at a Glance on UNHCR website