Accelerating Equality and Empowerment: International Women's Day 2023

In 2021, the number of refuges worldwide reached 27 million. While many refugees were hosted in high income countries in Europe and beyond, more than 86% of refugees found asylum in neighboring low-and middle-income countries. Middle-income countries host more than 63% of people displaced across borders. This included the largest global refugee population in Türkiye (3.8 million), followed by Jordan (3 million). Among the low-income countries, Uganda was home to 1.5 million refugees, most of whom have fled conflicts in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2021, refuges from just five countries – Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Democratic Republic of the Congo – accounted for more than two thirds of all refuges in the world.  The largest number of refugees came from Syrian Arab Republic, with 6.8 million people displaced during the continued civil war. Afghans were the second-largest refugee population displaced across border, with 2.7 million.

Unlike refugees who cross national borders and benefit from an established system of international protection and assistance, those forcibly uprooted within their own countries, by armed conflict, large-scale development projects, systematic violations of human rights, or natural disasters, lack predictable structures of support. Internal displacement has become one of the more pressing humanitarian, human rights and security problems confronting affected countries and the international community at large.