Refugee crisis

A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and/or dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of refugees. These could be forcibly displaced persons, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), due to conflicts, human rights violations, and other disturbing events, 108.4 million individuals experienced forced displacement globally by the end of 2022. 35.3 million of 108.4 were refugees. UNHCR oversees 29.4 million refugees, whereas 5.9 million fall under the mandate of UNRWA as Palestine refugees. Furthermore, internal displacement affects 62.5 million individuals, 5.4 million are asylum-seekers, and an additional 5.2 million are other people in need of international protection. More vital information from UNHCR highlights that 76% of refugees and those in need of international protection worldwide are hosted in low to middle-income countries, with a significant portion being countries neighboring their nations of origin. Türkiye hosted the largest refugee population globally, accommodating nearly 3.6 million refugees. The Islamic Republic of Iran followed closely with 3.4 million, trailed by Colombia with 2.5 million, Germany with 2.1 million, and Pakistan with 1.7 million. In relation to their national populations, Aruba (1 in 6) and Lebanon (1 in 7) hosted the highest number of refugees and individuals requiring international protection, followed by Curaçao (1 in 14), Jordan (1 in 16), and Montenegro (1 in 19). In 2022, the majority of refugees and individuals in need of international protection, accounting for 52%, originated from the top three countries that migrated to host nations. The first country was the Syrian Arab Republic with 6.5 million refugees, followed by Ukraine with 5.7 million, and Afghanistan, ranking third with 5.7 million refugees. In 2022, the government reported approximately 113,300 refugees who resettled, while UNHCR documented 116,500 refugees relocated to states for resettlement.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, refugees are individuals who find themselves outside their home country due to a justified fear of persecution based on different factors such as race, religion, nationality, membership in a specific social group, or political opinion. They can be without a nationality, residing outside their home countries, and unable or unwilling to return there due to a fear of persecution. The UN Refugee Convention determines what conditions are required to be considered a refugee or when someone's refugee status is taken away due to circumstances changing in their country of origin.

Causes for the refugee crises can include war, civil war, human rights violations, environment and climate issues, economic hardship, gender and sexual orientation-related factors, and hunger.

In June 2015 the UN refugee agency reported that wars and persecutions are the main reasons behind the refugee crises all over the world. A decade earlier, six people were forced to leave their homes every 60 seconds, but in 2015 wars drove 24 people on average away from their homes each minute. In its Border Wars series, the Transnational Institute examines the role of the arms industry in creating and profiting from forced displacement, underscoring that "some of the beneficiaries of border security contracts are some of the biggest arms sellers to the Middle-East and North-Africa, fueling the conflicts in the region that have led refugees to flee their homes. In other words, the companies contributing to the refugee crisis are now profiting from the consequences."

Discrimination and inequality can also lead many individuals and families to move away from their homelands to other countries or regions (for example Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Nigeria and North America).

Although they do not fit the definition of refugees set out in the UN Convention, people displaced by the effects of climate change have often been termed "climate refugees" or "climate change refugees". The term 'environmental refugee' is also commonly used and an estimated 25 million people can currently be classified as such. The alarming predictions by the UN, charities and some environmentalists, that between 200 million and 1 billion people could flood across international borders to escape the impacts of climate change in the next 40 years are realistic. Case studies from Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania, three countries that are said to be prone to suffering the effects of climate change, show that people affected by environmental degradation rarely move across borders. Instead, they adapt to new circumstances by moving short distances for short periods, often to cities. Millions of people live in places that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They face extreme weather conditions such as droughts or floods. Their lives and livelihoods might be threatened in new ways and create new vulnerabilities.

Following the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the term refugee was sometimes used to describe people displaced by the storm and the aftereffects. There was an outcry that the term should not be used to describe Americans displaced within their own county, and the term evacuee was substituted in its place. The UNHCR similarly opposes the use of the term refugee in reference to environmental migrants, as this term has a strict legal definition.