More and more people are leaving their homes because of wars or economic collapses. Almost 80 million people worldwide were displaced in 2019. That is about one percent of the entire world population. The number of refugees and displaced persons has almost doubled in the past ten years. Around 40 percent of the refugees in 2019 were children under the age of 18, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR in its annual report. More than two thirds of the refugees who seek protection outside their country come from only five countries: 6.6 million from Syria, 3.7 million from Venezuela, 2.7 million from Afghanistan, 2.2 million South Sudan and 1.1 million from Myanmar. According to the UNHCR, more than 45 million of the refugees are internally displaced. That means they sought protection in their own country. More than 29 million fled to another country. 4.2 million sought asylum – 20 percent more than in 2018. With 3.9 million refugees and asylum seekers, Turkey accepted more people than any other country. Germany is the fifth largest country with 1.4 million admitted. More at www.unhcr.org.
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Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL; Wolfgang Sannwald, 18.06.2020
