This is a list of largest refugee crises to occur.
The list below includes the number of refugees per event with at least 1 million individuals included. This list does not include internally displaced persons (IDP). For events for which estimates vary, the geometric mean of the lowest and highest estimates is calculated to rank the events.
Rows highlighted in blue indicate a present event that is occurring.
Event | Refugees estimate | Origin | From | Until | Duration | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
World War II | 60.0 million | Europe | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] |
Partition of India | 10.0–20.0 million | Indian subcontinent | 1947 | 1948 | 1 year | [7] [8] |
World War I | 7.0–15.0 million | Europe | 1914 | 1918 | 4 years | [9] [10] [11] |
Russian Invasion of Ukraine | 9.2 million [note 1] | Ukraine and Russia | 2022 | Present | 2 years | [12] [13] [14] [15] |
Bangladesh Liberation War | 9.0 million | Indian subcontinent | 1971 | 1971 | 8 months | [16] |
Crisis in Venezuela | 7.7 million | Venezuela | 2014 | Present | 10 years | [17] |
Syrian Civil War | 6.7 million | Syria | 2011 | Present | 13 years | [18] |
Soviet–Afghan War | 6.2 million | Afghanistan | 1978 | 1989 | 11 years | [19] |
Israeli–Palestinian Conflict | 5.6 million | Palestine (region) | 1947 | Present | 77 years | [20] |
Yemeni Civil War | 4.5 million | Yemen | 2015 | Present | 9 years | [21] |
Vietnam War | 3.0 million | Mainland Southeast Asia | 1975 | 2000 | 25 years | [22] |
War in Afghanistan | 2.6–2.7 million | Afghanistan | 2001 | 2021 | 20 years | [23] [24] |
Yugoslav Wars | 2.4 million | Yugoslavia | 1991 | 2001 | 10 years | [25] |
Korean War | 1.0–5.0 million | Korea | 1950 | 1953 | 3 years | [26] [27] |
Iraq War | 2.2 million | Iraq | 2003 | 2012 | 9 years | [28] |
Rwandan Genocide | 2.1 million | Rwanda | 1994 | 1996 | 2 years | [29] |
War in Sudan | 1.9 million | Sudan | 2023 | Present | 11 months | [30] |
Iraqi Uprisings | 1.8 million | Iraq | 1991 | 1991 | 8 months | [22] |
Mozambican Civil War | 1.7 million | Mozambique | 1977 | 1992 | 15 years | [22] |
South Sudanese Civil War | 1.5 million | South Sudan | 2011 | 2020 | 9 years | [31] |
Rohingya Genocide | 1.3 million | Myanmar | 2016 | Present | 8 years | [32] |
Algerian War | 1.0 million | Algeria | 1954 | 1962 | 8 years | [22] |
Irish Great Famine | 1.0 million | Ireland | 1845 | 1849 | 4 years | [33] |
First Libyan Civil War | 1.0 million | Libya | 2011 | 2011 | 8 months | [34] |
Somali Civil War | 1.0 million | Somalia | 1991 | Present | 33 years | [35] |
Demographic features of the population of Romania include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.
Forced displacement is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations".
Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who were forced to flee their country as a result of wars, persecution, torture or genocide. The 1978 Saur Revolution followed by the 1979 Soviet invasion marked the first major wave of internal displacement and international migration to neighboring Iran and Pakistan; smaller numbers also went to India or to countries of the former Soviet Union. Between 1979 and 1992, more than 20% of Afghanistan's population fled the country as refugees. Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, many returned to Afghanistan, however many Afghans were again forced to flee during the civil war in the 90s. Over 6 million Afghan refugees were residing in Iran and Pakistan by 2000. Most refugees returned to Afghanistan following the 2001 United States invasion and overthrow of the Taliban regime. Between 2002 and 2012, 5.7 million refugees returned to Afghanistan, increasing the country's population by 25%.
Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout 1980 until 2017, there were a large number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking with the Iraq War and continued until the end of the most recent War in Iraq (2013–2017). Precipitated by a series of conflicts including the Kurdish rebellions during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait (1990) and the Gulf War (1991), the subsequent sanctions against Iraq (1991–2003), culminating in the Iraq War and the subsequent War in Iraq (2013–2017), millions were forced by insecurity to flee their homes in Iraq. Like the majority of refugees worldwide, Iraqi refugees established themselves in urban areas in other countries rather than in refugee camps.
The Iraqi diaspora refers to native Iraqis who have left for other countries as emigrants or refugees, and is now one of the largest in modern times, being described by the UN as a "humanitarian crisis" caused by the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq and by the ensuing war.
Afghan diaspora refers to the Afghan people that reside and work outside of Afghanistan. They include natives and citizens of Afghanistan who have immigrated to other countries. The majority of the diaspora has been formed by Afghan refugees since the start of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979; the largest numbers temporarily reside in Iran. As stateless refugees or asylum seekers, they are protected by the well-established non-refoulement principle and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The ones having at least one American parent are further protected by United States laws.
Iraqis in Turkey includes Turkish citizens of Iraqi origin, Iraqi-born citizens and Iraqi expat workers.
Refugees of the Syrian civil war are citizens and permanent residents of Syria who have fled the country throughout the Syrian civil war. The pre-war population of the Syrian Arab Republic was estimated at 22 million (2017), including permanent residents. Of that number, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million (2016) as displaced persons, requiring humanitarian assistance. Of these, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 more than six million (2016) were internally displaced, and around five million (2016) had crossed into other countries, seeking asylum or placed in Syrian refugee camps worldwide. It is often described as one of the largest refugee crises in history.
The demographics of Poland constitute all demographic features of the population of Poland including population density, ethnicity, education level, the health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.
Humanitarian aid during the Syrian civil war has been provided by various international bodies, organizations and states. The main effort is coordinated by Jonh Ging of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). In 2014, U.N. Security Council Resolution 2165 authorised humanitarian aid to be supplied via four border crossings not controlled by the Syrian government, generally to supply rebel-controlled territory.
During 2015, there was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe. 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single year since World War II. They were mostly Syrians, but also included significant numbers from Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Eritrea, and the Balkans. The increase in asylum seekers has been attributed to factors such as the escalation of various wars in the Middle East and ISIL's territorial and military dominance in the region due to the Arab Winter, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt ceasing to accept Syrian asylum seekers.
Refugees in Romania have arrived in multiple waves throughout Romania's history. Historical waves of refugees include the Armenians who fled the Ottoman Empire due to the Armenian genocide in 1915, Greeks who fled persecution after the Greek Civil War and during the Greek military junta of 1967–74, Koreans who fled the Korean War and Chileans fleeing the Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–90).
A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants.
This is a timeline of the European migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016.
Refugees in Poland were, until 2022, a relatively small group. Since 1989, the number of people applying for refugee status in Poland has risen from about 1,000 to 10,000 each year; about 1–2% of the applications were approved. The majority of applications were citizens of the former Soviet Union.
Turkey's migrant crisis, sometimes referred to as Turkey's refugee crisis, was a period during the 2010s characterised by a high number of people migrating to Turkey. Turkey received the highest number of registered refugees of any country or territory each year from 2014 to 2019, and had the world's largest refugee population according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The majority were refugees of the Syrian Civil War, numbering 3.6 million as of June 2020. In 2018, the UNHCR reported that Turkey hosted 63.4% of all "registered Syrian refugees."
An ongoing refugee crisis began in Europe in late February 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Over 6 million refugees fleeing Ukraine are recorded across Europe, while an estimated 8 million others had been displaced within the country by late May 2022. Approximately one-quarter of the country's total population had left their homes in Ukraine by 20 March. 90% of Ukrainian refugees are women and children, while most Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country. By 24 March, more than half of all children in Ukraine had left their homes, of whom a quarter had left the country. The invasion caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II and its aftermath, is the first of its kind in Europe since the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, as well as the fourth largest refugee crisis in history, and is the largest refugee crisis of the 21st century, with the highest refugee flight rate globally.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in late February 2022, more than 300,000 Russian citizens and residents are estimated to have left Russia by mid-March 2022, at least 500,000 by the end of August 2022, and an additional 400,000 by early October, for a total of approximately 900,000. This number includes economic migrants, conscientious objectors, and some political refugees.