There are an unprecedented number of refugees in the world today. The decade last decade saw forced displacement and human suffering on an increasingly terrifying scale. In June 2019 the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that 70.8 million people had been forced from their homes of whom 41.3 million were displaced within their own countries, 25.9 million were refugees and 3.5 million seeking asylum. 80% of displaced people were being hosted in neighbouring countries. According to the UNHCR, every minute in 2018, 15 people were forced to flee.

The main countries of asylum for refugees in 2018 were Turkey with 3.7 million; Pakistan 1.4 million; Uganda 1.2 million; Sudan 1.1 million; and Germany 1.1 million.

For more detail see Figures at a Glance on the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) website, and read the UNHCR report Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2018. The UNHCR also gives information about the latest refugee crises.

As many more people are on the move, mixed groups of migrants and refugees making perilous journeys together across, deserts, mountains, seas and dangerous border areas. The International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project  charts the estimated number of refugees and migrants who die in transit throughout the world. There were 4,937 dead or missing in 2019.