One person out of every 115 people alive today is a refugee or displaced person. There are refugees living in every country in the world, but today most refugees live in the poorer countries of Africa or Asia. Most of the world's displaced people also live in these countries. There are about 5 million refugees living in Western Europe who have fled from many different countries.

Refugees:

At the present time there are about 12 million refugees in the world.

Refugees are ordinary people who have fled from their own countries because of war, or because their religion, political beliefs, ethnic group or way of life puts them in danger of arrest, torture or death.

These people have left their home country and cannot go back there, although most refugees prefer to return to their home as soon as it is safe. Often they have to wait until a conflict or a war has ended in their country, and the basic necessities of life have been restored.

Displaced People:

Around 25 to 30 million people have fled from their homes because their lives are in danger, but have gone into hiding in their home country. This group of people are called displaced people. They have fled from their homes for the same reasons as refugees. The difference between displaced people and refugees is that refugees have left their own countries.

Asylum Seekers:

At this time there are about 914,100 Asylum Seekers in the world.

When people flee their own country, they apply for the right to be recognised as refugees in the country they have fled to. This is called seeking asylum. If they are granted asylum, they then have the right to be protected by the law and cared for financially by that country.

In the last fifty years several million people were granted asylum in different countries around the world. As travel and communication has become easier there has been an increase in the number of people seeking asylum. Europe experienced particularly large numbers of people seeking asylum during the Balkan crisis in the 1990's. Because of the increase, many countries have made it harder for asylum seekers to be granted asylum. In Europe, the member states of the European Union have been working for several years to reach an agreement on their asylum procedures.

Resettlement:

Some refugees cannot or are unwilling to return home, usually because they would still be persecuted if they did. They are helped to find new homes, either in the asylum country where they are living or in another country where they can stay and make a new home. Sometimes countries are willing to accept refugees in emergencies, but there are only about twelve countries who will offer some refugees a permanent new home.

ORIGIN OF MAJOR REFUGEE POPULATIONS IN 1999 [ten largest groups]

ASYLUM APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN SELECTED COUNTRIES [in 2000]

MAIN COUNTRIES OF RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES [in 2000]