In time for Refugee Week, Craven District of Sanctuary and Upper Wharfedale Refugee Support Group has collated data and information about refugees for what has become an annual fact sheet. It provides a summary of global and national statistics and some data on Yorkshire.
The data is sourced from the UN, the UK government, Eurostat, Migration Yorkshire and the Migration Observatory. It relates to 2022 (with some updates and notification of significant changes since the data was published). As different agencies collect data differently and work to different timescales, the data should be understood as indicative not absolute. Nonetheless it provides a useful resource.
The global picture
In 2022, 103 million people were displaced (up from 84 million in 2021). Of those, 41% were children. Most displaced people (75%) remained within their own country or in an adjoining country. Only five million sought asylum elsewhere, but were in addition to the 26.6 million already registered as refugees. A number of those who flee their countries are neither seeking asylum nor are registered as refugees. Some of these are displaced people on the move, while many are Ukrainians or Venezuelans who have moved to another country without necessarily claiming asylum or being given residence visas.
Registered asylum seekers or refugees come primarily from Syria (6.8 million), Venezuela (4.6 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million), South Sudan (2.4 million) and (Myanmar 1.2 million). It is estimated that 1.6 million Sudanese have fled the country this year, and so are not included in the 2022 figures. Some 82% of refugees are hosted in low and middle-income countries: Türkiye, Columbia, Uganda, Pakistan and Germany host the most refugees.
Europe
In 2022, Poland accepted 1.5 million Ukrainians but almost no other refugees. Germany accepted 767,205 Ukrainians and just under 244,000 people arrived in and applied for asylum in Germany. In comparison, the UK hosted 153,700 Ukrainians (now at just under 200,000) and 72,751 people arrived in the UK and applied for asylum.
In 2021, Germany hosted 33% of Europe’s refugees and France 17%. Austria, Spain, Italy and Greece all hosted more refugees than the UK per head of population and, excepting Austria, in greater numbers overall. The UK hosted 5% of Europe’s refugees. The UK’s unwillingness to shoulder its responsibilities leaves other nations reluctant to extend the returns policy, which operates within the EU, to the UK.
The UK
In 2022, the majority of those given protection in the UK (over 50%) were from Ukraine (153,700). The next largest group were from Hong Kong, officially British nationals overseas (105,200) – who may or may not be in need of protection. Just 23,841 people were granted asylum, while a further 4,473 came to the UK on family reunion visas and only 4,602 on resettlement routes (almost all from Afghanistan, evacuated after the country’s fall to the Taliban).
Only 3% of those who applied for asylum in 2022 received a decision. The government standard is that decisions should be reached within six months but only 10.2% of decisions met that standard. In 2014 it was 80%. Families and children were prioritised so single men wait the longest.
Although asylum applications have trebled since 2020 (post-Covid), the number waiting a decision has increased seven-fold and stood at the end of the year at 140,000 (it is now about 170,000).
Implications
The number of people forcibly displaced has risen year-on-year and is up from just under 80 million in 2021 to 103 million today. Some countries have generated refugees for a long time and the numbers ebb and flow with returns home and resurgent violence, for example to and from Syria and Afghanistan.
In 2022, we saw the start of a major new war as Russia invaded Ukraine. The persecution of minority groups in Myanmar and China continues while some majority populations, such as Palestinians, are still persecuted in their homeland. Venezuela shows the inter-relationships between political and gang violence, economic breakdown and environmental displacement, which will only increase as the world’s resources become scarcer. Some countries such as Lebanon, Türkiye, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tunisia and Russia both generate refugees and receive them from other countries.
The dispersal of refugees is very uneven with the poorest countries accepting the most refugees and the poorest areas within countries accepting the most refugees. The UK and Europe are an exception in this regard. Germany hosts a third of Europe’s refugees while the UK hosts about 5%.
Countries’ responses to refugee crises swings between opening up and closing down borders, often on racial lines, as is currently happening in Eastern Europe and in the UK. While white Ukrainians have been welcomed across Europe, other ethnic minorities have been rejected, even when fleeing Ukraine. The EU is, again, attempting to implement a quota system, which would see those countries that fail to accept their share of refugees paying for each person not accepted. At present Poland is refusing to agree this policy.
Climate breakdown, resource and land competition and economic breakdown are all likely to accelerate migration, and the flows will be towards the richer countries – even if walls and fences prevent entry. Measures such as climate justice reparations or support for poorer countries in achieving net zero, which might prevent this exodus, are slow in coming. The UK has even transferred much of its foreign aid budget to ‘accommodating’ (effectively detaining) asylum seekers in the UK, thus contributing to the problem.
Global problems require global solutions
Expecting refugees to stay in the first safe country, which is often the poorest and already hosting the most refugees, is both inhumane and impractical. Even with a massive shifting of resources, for example from the EU to Libya and Tunisia, these resources are insufficient to meet need and do not negate the imperative of richer countries taking their share of refugees.
We need to face the facts. Fortress UK (or EU) will not stem the flow of those needing safety but may create a UK that is deeply divided and fearful; a country that will be hostile for citizens and refugees alike. Human displacement is a global problem and requires global solutions. It also requires the richer nations to take on more of their responsibilities and not leaving the problems to the poorest countries to solve.
