Latest News

2012-13 Submission on the Refugee and Humanitarian Program RCOA's annual submission on Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program is now available for download here.

2012-14 Refugee Week theme: 'Restoring Hope' RCOA has chosen 'Restoring Hope' as the Refugee Week theme for 2012 to 2014. For further details, visit the Refugee Week website.

Plight of refugees with adverse ASIO findings raised with Canberra RCOA has written to Attorney-General Nicola Roxon on the predicament of recognised refugees who remain in immigration detention because of adverse ASIO findings. Read the letter here.

Nauru is not an option RCOA acted strongly to reject any return to offshore processing in Nauru following revelations the Federal Government was willing to negotiate with the Opposition on asylum seeker policy. Read our media release.

Refugee and asylum seeker policy on a positive pathway RCOA has welcomed the announcement by the Federal Government that it had begun to wind back its policy of indefinite mandatory detention for asylum seekers who enter Australia by boat. Read our media release.

 

 

Statistics at a glance

For more statistics, visit the Refugee Council of Australia website: www.refugeecouncil.org.au

• There were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2009. This figure includes 15.2 million refugees, 983,000 asylum seekers and 27.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).

• Of the global total of uprooted people, UNHCR cares for 26 million, including 10.4 million refugees and a record 15.6 million IDPs. This is one million more people than in 2008.

• A decrease in the number of refugees was observed in the Middle East and North Africa region, and in sub-Saharan Africa the number of refugees continued to decline for the ninth consecutive year. However, overall, decreases in the refugee population in some countries were offset by mass outflows in others, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.

• By the end of 2009 an estimated 5.5 million refugees were living in one of 25 protracted refugee situations worldwide. UNHCR defines a protracted situation as one in which 25,000 or more refugees of the same nationality have been in exile for five years or longer in any given asylum country.

• One out of four refugees in the world originate from Afghanistan, and Afghan refugees are located in 71 different asylum countries.

• Developing countries are host to 8.3 million refugees, or 80%, of the refugee population. UNHCR estimates that more than half of the world’s refugees reside in urban areas and less than one third in camps. However, 60% of refugees in sub-Saharan Africa reside in camps.

• The five major refugee hosting countries in 2009 were the same as those in 2008: Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Germany and Jordan. Together, these countries account for 47% of all refugees under the UNHCR mandate. At the end of 2009 Pakistan was hosting 1.74 million refugees.

• By the end of 2009 women and girls made up 47% refugees and asylum seekers.

• Forty-one percent of refugees and asylum seekers are children below 18 years of age. In 2009, more than 18,700 asylum applications were lodged by unaccompanied and separated children, the highest number in four years.

• During 2009, there were at least 922,500 individual applications for asylum or refugee status submitted in 159 countries or territories. This constitutes a 5% increase since 2008. South Africa was again the main destination for new asylum seekers, with more than 222,000 claims registered in 2009, accounting for almost one quarter of applications globally.

• During 2009, UNHCR identified some 6.6 million stateless persons in 60 countries but estimated the total number of stateless persons worldwide at almost double that number.

• Globally, an estimated 24.7 million refugees have returned home over the past 20 years; most of them with UNHCR assistance. The main countries of return in 2009 included Afghanistan (57,600), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (44,300), Iraq (38,000), Sudan (33,100), Burundi (32,400), and Rwanda (20,600).

Information taken from UNHCR's “2009 Global Trends: Refugees Asylum Seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons", available at www.unhcr.org/4c11f0be9.html