June 19, 2020. Colombia: Hector Castillo (23) is a Venezuelan migrant native from Caracas. He just received a bag and stuff from the NGO NRC to give him better walking conditions. He is in Colombia since one and a half years. He's been walking all day with two other friends. They hope to reach the city of Paipa, some 200 km from Bogota, where the aunt of one of his friends will give them shelter for a while. Today he says, in relation to the crisis: "The only thing we can do is walk.". Credit: Nadège Mazars for NRC
Global displacement

The refugee statistics don’t tell the whole story

Some countries have received a large number of displaced people without them being registered as refugees. Why is this?

At the beginning of 2020, there were 79.5 million displaced people around the world. This figure includes refugees, asylum seekers and people forced to flee within their own country.

How refugees are counted

The figures from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, are divided into refugees who have been granted protection, and asylum seekers who are waiting to have their asylum application processed.

UNHCR’s list of the number of refugees in each country shows how many people still need protection. However, it doesn’t show how many have previously received protection and are still in the country. The difference is particularly great for Western countries, where individual asylum seekers are excluded from the statistics after ten years, while so-called “resettlement refugees”, who receive permanent residency from day one, are not included at all.

To compare which countries take the greatest responsibility, we must look at how many refugees receive protection each year.

There are many reasons why large numbers of people who have fled to another country are not registered in the refugee statistics.

Read more: A few countries take responsibility for most of the world’s refugees

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works to support refugees and displaced people in over 30 countries around the world, including Venezuela, Colombia and Lebanon. Support our work today

Displaced Venezuelans

Between 2017 and 2019, 4.5 million people left Venezuela due to the crisis in the country. Only 36,000 of them have so far been granted refugee status. Almost 800,000 are waiting to have their asylum applications processed, while 3.6 million are staying in neighbouring countries and have not applied for asylum. Many Venezuelans have decided not to apply for refugee status or have been unable to do so. The countries that they flee to often offer different kinds of permit to stay in their country.

In 2019, UNHCR chose for the first time to include in their displacement statistics Venezuelans who have travelled to neighbouring countries, but who have not applied for asylum or been registered as refugees. Although this large group of people from Venezuela is now included in the UNHCR total, they do not appear in overviews of which countries have provided protection to the most refugees.

A combination of an acute socio-economic crisis and a lack of political solutions has left millions of people in Venezuela without access to food, healthcare, clean water or education. An estimated 7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and more than 4 million refugees and migrants have left the country so far. Food is less available and affordable, and many people now depend on the delivery of subsidised supplies to meet their needs. The Venezuelan health system has deteriorated rapidly over the last five years due to the exodus of healthcare staff. As many as one third of all doctors have left the country. In addition, a shortage of medicines and other resources has led to soaring prices. This lack of access to medicines and treatment has increased the risk of illness and death from diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer. In the midst of regional and international political narratives and attempts at peace talks, Venezuelans stuck in a crisis-stricken homeland are trying their best to survive. Here are some of the human faces and stories behind the headlines of Venezuela’s crisis. Photo: Ingebjørg Kårstad/NRC
The Venezuelan flag reflected onto broken glass. Photo: Ingebjørg Kårstad/NRC

Colombia is by far the largest recipient of displaced Venezuelans and has received 1.8 million in total. If these Venezuelans had been considered to be refugees, Colombia would have been the ninth largest recipient country relative to its population in the last ten years, with displaced Venezuelans representing 3.6 per cent of its population.

The two small island states of Aruba and Curaçao would be number two and four, at 16.6 and 8.2 per cent, respectively. Countries such as Panama, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil have also received many displaced Venezuelans.

Read more: These 10 countries receive the most refugees

Many refugees are not registered

There are several refugee groups that for various reasons are not registered, and they are consequently not included in the UNHCR statistics.

Officially, the Arab Gulf countries have barely received any refugees in the last ten years. However, several of these countries have nevertheless received a larger number of displaced Syrians, who have not been registered as refugees. Many have been granted residency as guest workers, and according to Saudi authorities, they have offered free schooling to 100,000 Syrian children.

None of these countries has ratified the Refugee Convention, which means that these refugees do not always receive the protection and rights they should have.

South Korea grants all defectors from North Korea automatic citizenship and they are therefore not considered refugees. There is said to be a total of over 30,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea. A large but unknown number of North Koreans have also fled to China, where they are trying to stay hidden because they are considered illegal immigrants by the Chinese authorities. They are not shown in the statistics either.

Israel offers Jewish people from all over the world residence in the country. Although some of them have had to leave their former homelands due to persecution, they are not considered refugees.

Family reunification

Refugees who receive protection after their individual asylum applications have been processed are often given the opportunity to be reunited with their families in the country where they have received protection.

In recent years, however, it has become increasingly difficult for refugees to achieve family reunification. It is expensive to submit an application and the family is required to go to an embassy, which is often located in another country, in order to apply.

Most people who are reunited with refugees are refugees themselves. The families of Syrian refugees are often in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Turkey. Family reunification with refugees is not included in the figures from UNHCR, and there is no overall overview of how many each country has received.

My wish for this new year is for the war in Syria to end so that the children of Syria can be safe. The country needs stability so that people can return and be united again. Before the war families were united and loved ones always saw each other. I haven’t seen my brother for 5 years who live in another part of Lebanon because our financial conditions don’t allow for it. Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Shamsedine is a Syrian refugee living in Bekaa, Lebanon. He was unable to see his brother for five years because they were separated after fleeing. Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC

Based on the figures from countries that keep such statistics, we can nevertheless estimate that the number of refugees who are in a country due to family reunification is about a third of the number who are granted asylum.

In Sweden, this number is higher than most other countries, and the country has provided residency to 112,000 refugees through family reunification in the last ten years. This is 42 per cent of the number of refugees who have been granted residency in the same period.

Immigrants without a residence permit

In many countries, there are large numbers of people without a formal residence permit. Some of these may have fled their homeland due to war, conflict and persecution.

Some have chosen not to register as refugees because it costs money, as is the situation in Lebanon. Others know that they will probably not be granted asylum, and therefore choose to live in hiding and make a living in the informal labour market. There are also some who do not leave the country after their asylum application has been rejected.

According to the Pew Research Center, there are between 2.9 and 3.8 million immigrants without a legal residence permit living in the EU and EEA area.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works to support refugees and displaced people in over 30 countries around the world, including Venezuela, Colombia and Lebanon. Support our work today