New refugees

New refugees

During 2018, 1.1 million people were reported as new refugees, down from the 2.7 million reported in 2017. This figure comprised 599,300 refugees who were recognised on a group or prima facie basis, as well as the 461,200 who were granted some form of temporary protection.

Syrians were the largest group of new refugees registered on a group or prima facie basis, accounting for more than half of new registrations with 526,500 new refugees. Most of these were in Turkey, where 397,600 were registered in 2018 (although many would have arrived earlier), followed by 81,700 in Sudan, 15,600 in Iraq, 13,300 in Jordan, 11,800 in Greece and 5,300 in Egypt.

The conflict in South Sudan continued to displace many, with 179,200 new refugees registered in 2018. Still, this was a lower rate of displacement than was seen in the previous year when over 1 million new refugees were recorded. More than half of these new South Sudanese refugee movements (99,400) were to Sudan, but there were also large numbers of South Sudanese in Uganda (40,700), Ethiopia (25,400), Kenya (7,300) and DRC (5,900).

Refugees from DRC constituted the third largest group of new refugees with 123,400 people forcibly displaced across its borders in 2018. Nearly all of these new refugees fled to Uganda (119,900), while smaller numbers of new refugees were registered in Rwanda (2,600) and South Sudan (800).

Other countries of origin of new refugees included CAR (53,100, mainly to Chad and Cameroon), Nigeria (41,000, mainly to Cameroon), Cameroon (32,600, all to Nigeria), Sudan (19,700, mainly to South Sudan), Myanmar (16,300, all to Bangladesh), Eritrea (14,900, mostly to Ethiopia), Afghanistan (10,500, mostly to Greece) and Burundi (10,100, mostly to Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo).

Number of refugees per 1,000 inhabitants | end-2018

Number of refugees per 1000 inhabitants end 2018 UNHCR

Turkey was the country of asylum that registered the most new refugees in 2018 with 397,600 Syrians registered under the Government’s Temporary Protection Regulation. This was followed by Sudan which reported new refugees from South Sudan (99,400), Syria (81,700), CAR (4,700) and Yemen (700). Uganda also registered 160,600 new refugees in 2018, mainly from DRC (119,900) and South Sudan (40,700). In addition, Cameroon reported 52,800 new refugees, from Nigeria (31,800) and CAR (20,900); Ethiopia reported 42,100 new refugees, mainly from South Sudan (25,400), Eritrea (14,600), Sudan (1,200) and Somalia (800); and Nigeria reported 32,600 new arrivals, all from Cameroon.

Key flows of newly registered refugees and new asylum-seekers in 2018

Key flows of newly registered refugees new asylum seekers in 2018 

SOURCES: UNHCR, IOM

IMAGE CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Coast Guard District 7 [Public domain]


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