Refugees and asylum-seekers

By the end of 2022, there was a total of 35.3 million refugees globally, with 29.4 million under UNHCR’s mandate,³⁴ and 5.9 million refugees registered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East.³⁵ The total number of refugees is the highest captured by modern statistical reporting that does not include historical data.³⁶ The increase in the number of refugees between 2021 and 2022 is the largest yearly increase recorded, in large part as a result of refugees from Ukraine fleeing the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion.³⁷

There were also approximately 5.4 million people seeking international protection and awaiting determination of their refugee status, referred to as asylum-seekers. In 2022 alone, almost 2.9 million asylum applications were registered in 162 countries, the highest number of individual asylum applications on record. In 2022, the global number of first-instance new individual asylum claims lodged was 2.6 million, an increase of 83 per cent over 2021. The top recipient remained the United States with around 730,400 claims, a threefold increase from the previous year. Second was Germany, with 217,800 new claims, a notable increase from the previous year.

At the end of 2022, those under 18 years of age constituted around 41 per cent of the overall 35.3 million refugee population.³⁸ Unaccompanied and separated children lodged an estimated 51,700 individual asylum applications in 2022, a significant increase (89%) from the previous year.

New, unresolved or renewed conflict dynamics in key countries contributed significantly to current figures and trends. Of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate at the end of 2022, the top 10 countries of origin – the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea – accounted for more than 87 per cent of the total refugee population. Many of these countries, except Ukraine, have been among the top origins of refugees for several years.

The Russian Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine resulted in one of the largest displacement crises since the Second World War. Around 5.7 million Ukrainians had been forced to flee their country by the end of 2022, making Ukraine the second-largest origin country of refugees in the world after the Syrian Arab Republic. The protracted conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic meant that the country continued to be the largest origin of refugees in the world at the end of 2022 (6.5 million), although this was a decrease from 6.8 million in 2021. Moreover, the instability and violence that has made Afghanistan a major source of refugees for over 30 years has continued, with the country being the third-largest origin country in the world, with about 5.7 million refugees in 2022; this is an increase from 2.7 million in 2021. Refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprised over half of the world’s refugee population. Figure 15 shows the trends in refugee numbers for the top five countries of origin from 2005 to 2022. The impact of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine is clearly illustrated; in 2021, for example, Ukraine was the origin of just over 27,000 refugees.

Source: UNHCR, n.d. (accessed17 June 2023).
Note: South Sudan became a country in 2011.

Consistent with the previous years, more than half of all refugees resided in 10 countries. In 2022, for the seventh consecutive year, Türkiye was the largest host country in the world, with nearly 3.6 million refugees, mainly Syrians (see Figure 16). Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran were also among the top 10 refugee-hosting countries, as the two principal hosts of refugees from Afghanistan, the second-largest origin country. Uganda, the Russian Federation, Germany, the Sudan, Poland, Bangladesh and Ethiopia comprised the rest. The vast majority (70%) of refugees and other people in need of international protection were hosted in countries neighbouring their countries of origin. According to UNHCR, the least developed countries hosted a large number of refugees; for example, one in five of all refugees globally were hosted in sub-Saharan Africa, while 90 per cent of all refugees in Asia and the Pacific were hosted in just three countries: the Islamic Republic of Iran (3.4 million), Pakistan (1.7 million) and Bangladesh (952,400).

Source: UNHCR, n.d. (accessed 17 June 2023).
Note: As of 30 June 2023, the registration and formal recognition of Ukrainians in the Russian Federation were still ongoing and therefore not all those reported had the formal status of refugees (see UNHCR, 2022).

In 2022, over 339,000 refugees returned to their countries of origin, a decrease of 21 per cent from the year before. Most returns (151,300) were to South Sudan, the majority of these being from Uganda (75,500).

While there are many challenges to measuring those benefiting from local integration, UNHCR estimates that in 2022, 28 countries reported at least one or more naturalized refugee (compared with 23 countries in 2021), with a total of more than 50,800 naturalized refugees for the year – a decrease from 56,700 newly naturalized refugees in 2021, but still an increase when compared with the 23,000 reported in 2016. In 2022, most naturalizations occurred in Europe, the majority of which (approximately 23,300 refugees) were in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Around 18,700 refugees received long-term resident permits in Canada. Overall, refugees who received permanent residence or citizenship (globally) were largely from the Syrian Arab Republic (14,400), Eritrea (4,700) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (3,300).

In 2022, over 114,000 refugees were admitted for resettlement globally, double the number in 2021 (57,500) and a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Canada resettled the largest number of refugees (47,600), followed by the United States (29,000). Resettlements both to Canada and the United States increased compared with 2021, with arrivals to Canada increasing by 133 per cent and those resettled in the United States doubling (from 13,700). The largest number of those resettled to Canada were Afghans, while refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprised most resettlements to the United States. Resettlements to Australia also increased significantly from the previous year, quadrupling to 17,300.

Over the last 10 years, the number of refugees in need of resettlement has dramatically increased, almost doubling in size. UNHCR estimated that in 2011 there were approximately 805,000 refugees in need of resettlement, which has increased to nearly 1.5 million for 2022.³⁹ The number of resettled refugees has fluctuated over the years. In 2005, almost 81,000 refugees were resettled, compared with around 57,000 in 2021. However, in 2022, the number resettled was more than 114,000. Overall, resettlement has not kept up with the significant increase in need (see Table 3).
 

Source:UNHCR, n.d. (accessed 17 June 2023).
Note: Projected Global Resettlement Needs Report by UNHCR is available from 2011.

Refugee resettlement has been increasing since 2021 and returned to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels by the end of 2022. Resettlement figures dropped sharply in 2020, in part due to the effect of the pandemic, which severely limited international movements worldwide. In 2021, the United States revised and increased its annual refugee cap, resulting in the recent uptick in resettlements to the country. However, despite the increase in refugee resettlement, various refugee crises and new displacement situations mean that resettlement needs have risen significantly. There were 16 new refugees for each refugee that was returned or resettled in 2022.⁴⁰ Moreover, an estimated 2.4 million refugees will be in need of resettlement in 2024, a 20 per cent increase from 2023.⁴¹ Figure 17 provides an overview of resettlement statistics for key countries from 2002 to 2022.

Source: UNHCR, n.d. (accessed 17 June 2023).