Afghanistan Times
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RECORD numbers of migrants have burst through international borders this year as the number of ‘forcibly displaced’ people reaches 60m for the first time ever.
LONDON: Experts say the global refugee crisis has led to there being one migrant for every 122 people on earth.
The latest figures for migrants across the world were released in a UN report, revealing record numbers of people fleeing war, conflict and poverty.
And shocking results showed every day for the first six months of 2015, around 4,600 people fled their home.
The number of refugees, people who have fled to countries outside their own nationality, has reached 20million, while others are refugees in their own homeland.
European borders have been crammed with migrants and the Schengen Zone is in danger of collapse as country leaders put a stop to borderless travel over terror and crowding fears.
Germany alone took 1.1million official refugees in 2015 – and countless thousands of illegals.
War-torn and Taliban-plagued Afghanistan had the biggest exodus of migrants for three decades until mid 2014 when a surge of Syrians fled their homeland.
By mid 2014 more than 3million migrants had exited the Assad regime, just topping migrant numbers from Afghanistan.
Last year, an estimated 2.7m refugees spilled out of the country’s borders.
The horn of Africa is still producing a vast amount of the world’s refugees, with Somalia remaining at the forefront.
Over 1m Somalians left their homeland in 2014
Nearby Sudan produced just short of 800,000 migrants while the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and south Sudan all produced 0.5m migrants.
Iraq, Columbia and the Central African Republic were fled by 0.4m people last year alone.
According to research by the UN Refugee Agency migrants from Afghanistan mainly head mainly for Pakistan with 1.6m arriving last year.
But Turkey took in 1.84 million refugees on its territory as of 30 June 2015.
Lebanon had the second largest intake with one on four people in the country being a Syrian refugee in 2014.
The country now hosts more refugees compared to its population size than any other country
Iran is the third largest host nation with a total of 982,100 arriving last year.
But the number of migrants legally seeking asylum is on the rise, and there are record number of people illegally attempting to reach Britain.
Germany received the highest number of applications in 2014 – a number which doubled from 2013 to 202,645.
In the first six months of 2015 Germany was the world’s biggest recipient of new asylum claims – 159,000, close to the entire total for all of 2014.
Sweden then replaced France as the second biggest EU recipient of migrants.
Italy replaced the UK as the third biggest recipient with 64,625 applications.
Asylum seekers who reach Europe are mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Eritrea, Serbia, Pakistan and Iraq also produce some of the highest numbers of migrants to reach the EU.
The report said: “A consequence of more refugees being stuck in exile is that pressures on countries hosting them are growing too – something which unmanaged can increase resentment and abet politicisation of refugees.
“Despite such risks, the first half of 2015 was also marked by extraordinary generosity: On an absolute basis, and counting refugees who fall under UNHCR’s mandate, Turkey is the world’s biggest hosting country with 1.84 million refugees on its territory as of 30 June.”
The UNHCR said the report may not accurately reflect the situation in Europe as arrivals there have escalated in the second half of 2015.
High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said: “Forced displacement is now profoundly affecting our times. It touches the lives of millions of our fellow human beings – both those forced to flee and those who provide them with shelter and protection,”
“Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything,” he added.
The UNHCR has said the latest figures are likely to be short of the actual number of refugees worldwide because of the huge influx of migrants to Europe in recent months.
Germany alone took 1.1million migrants in 2015 with thousands more hopeful of getting in and the number of asylum applications breaking the country’s records.—(Sunday Express)
