Nations have an obligation to welcome asylum seekers. How many refugees are there? I thought: Maybe a formula for what portion of the refugees each country ought to admit – population density, wealth, unemployment rate, political stability? There we go. Problem solved.
Not so simple. Not because of xenophobic rejection of refugees and other immigrants. There are an enormous number of refugees. How many? The United Nations refugee agency says more than 70 million. Amnesty International says almost 26 million.
Why the discrepancy? I don’t know. Maybe Amnesty International is not counting refugees who are displaced in their own country. Don’t count in-country refugees and the UN figure gets reduced to 30 million. Close to Amnesty International’s figure.
Most refugees are in countries near where they come from. According to Amnesty International, in order, the countries that host the largest number of refugees are Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Germany, Iran, Sudan, Bangladesh.
Where do they come from? According to the UN Refugee agency, almost 13 million come from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan. Why do they seek refuge? The Syrians escape the war in Syria. The Afghanis are refugees from the war there. Those from South Sudan escape the civil war there. Not all escape wars. Those in Bangladesh are Rohynga who have been forced out of Myanmar into Bangladesh. The refugees in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa are an enormous problem. They are not a problem in the Americas.