Middle East and North Africa grapple with refugee crisis as numbers dip, but challenges remain

The Global Trends Report for Forced Displacement in 2022, published recently by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), revealed that 108,4 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of 2022, a 21% rise.

“Countries in the Middle East and North Africa are hosting 2.4 million of the refugees, a 2% decrease by the end of 2022”, said the report.

87% of the refugees in the Middle East and North Africa were hosted in Lebanon (818 900), Jordan (697 800), Egypt (294 600), and Iraq (273 700).

The largest refugee population in the world, almost 3.6 million people, were accommodated  by Turkey, followed by 3.4 million in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

There are 4.4 million stateless persons.

52% of refugees originated from Syria with 6.5 million refugees, Ukraine with 5.7 and Afghanistan with 5.7.  

“Persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order” are the primary causes of displacement, according to the study.

The number of individuals who have been forcibly displaced has increased over the first five months of 2023, and as of May 2023, the UNHCR predicts that the total number will likely surpass 110 million.

Among the displaced are 35.3 million refugees, 76% of whom are hosted in low- and middle-income countries.

Internally displaced persons number 62.5 million, asylum seekers number 5.4 million, and other people in need of international protection are 5.2 million.

“The number of refugees who relocated doubled during 2022, compared to the same time period in 2021, going from 57,500 to 114,300.” Said the report.

The United States received the largest portion of new individual applications worldwide. 116,500 refugees were presented by UNHCR to States for resettlement.

In 2022, there were 442,000 new displaced people in the Middle East and North Africa, of which more than half (234,300) were in Yemen and another 170,800 were in Syria.

The majority of group refugee recognitions occur in Africa. In 2022, UNHCR registered over 2.9 million individual requests for asylum in 162 countries, a 68% increase from 2021. The number of individual asylum applications at this time is the largest ever noted.

More than a million people have been internally displaced by recent fighting between Sudan’s feuding generals since it began on April 15, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Based on the UN’s data, an additional 319,000 people have sought asylum in neighboring nations. More than 132,000 refugees had arrived in Egypt , 80,000 in Chad , and 69,000 in South Sudan.