– Rising conflict, shrinking solutions –
A worrying mixture of worrying factors have led to rising displacement and narrowing space for refugee resettlement.
“Situations that cause large refugee outflows are lasting longer,” the agency said, including more than 30 years of unrest in both Somalia and Afghanistan.
New and intense conflicts as well as dormant crises that have been “reignited” are further fuelling the crisis, UNHCR said, pointing to South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi and the Central African Republic, aside from Syria.
Beyond the refugee hotspots in the Middle East and Africa, UNHCR said there were also worrying signs in Central America, where growing numbers of people fleeing gang violence led to a 17 percent rise in those leaving their homes through 2015.
Faced with a growing need to resettle those facing persecution, the answers are not always obvious.
“The rate at which solutions are being found for refugees and internally displaced people has been on a falling trend since the end of the Cold War,” the UN agency said.
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a senior UN diplomat, said refugees “are the victims of a general paralysis” among nations who are not meeting their responsibilities to the world’s neediest.
Turkey – which struck a controversial deal with the European Union in March to stem Europe’s migrant crisis – hosted the highest number of refugees through 2015 at 2.5 million, mostly Syrians.
Germany received the highest number of asylum requests (441,900) over the 12-month span, demonstrating the country’s “readiness to receive people who were fleeing to Europe via the Mediterranean.”
About The Author
