Türkiye has provided protection to more refugees than any other country in the last ten years. But in terms of refugees as a proportion of the total population, it is mostly small and lesser-known countries that have accepted the largest number of refugees in this period.
Here are the ten countries that have received the most refugees relative to their population during the period 2014–2023.
These 10 countries receive the most refugees: 2014–2023
1. Aruba – 16.1 per cent of the total population
Aruba is a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. The country has a population of just over 100,000. As a result of the crisis in neighbouring Venezuela, some 17,000 people have sought refuge in the small island state. Many more have attempted to reach Aruba but have been turned back.
Aruba still has close ties to the Netherlands, which also controls its foreign and security policy. The people of Aruba have the right to obtain a Dutch passport, and the authorities in both Aruba and the Netherlands are afraid that this will attract a large number of refugees and migrants if they do not pursue a strict asylum policy.
Due to the fear of being deported, as well as the fact that registered asylum seekers in Aruba are not allowed to work, most refugees and migrants live in hiding from the authorities and make a living in the informal part of the economy. As a result, it is difficult to know exactly how many have fled to the island. The figure of 17,000 is the UN refugee agency’s best estimate.
2. Curaçao – 14.4 per cent
Like Aruba, Curaçao is a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. Conditions for Venezuelan refugees and migrants living here are just as difficult as on the neighbouring island.
There are great similarities between Aruba and Curaçao when it comes to their relationship with the Netherlands. Both countries are autonomous, which means that they are not subject to EU asylum policy and refugee law. In one area, however, they differ. While Aruba has accepted to follow the UN Refugee Convention, Curaçao has refused to do so. This means that refugees in Curaçao have even less legal protection than in Aruba.
Amnesty International has criticised the authorities in the country for detaining refugees and denying them protection.
3. Montenegro – 10.7 per cent
Montenegro is one of Europe’s youngest nations and only gained its independence in 2006. The country is not yet a member of the European Union, and is therefore not part of the EU’s support mechanism for the reception of refugees. Nevertheless, Montenegro has received more refugees in relation to its population than any other European country in recent years.
When the war in Ukraine broke out, several million Ukrainians fled to European countries. Many settled in the countries bordering Ukraine. But Montenegro, a small country which is geographically remote from Ukraine, still received more refugees per capita than any of Ukraine’s neighbours.
The UN refugee agency has praised the authorities and people of Montenegro for the hospitality they have shown Ukrainian refugees. This positive attitude is one of the reasons why so many refugees have applied to Montenegro. There are close ties between these two Slavic peoples, who are also linguistically related. Paradoxically, relatively few Ukrainian refugees have received protection in Montenegro’s neighbouring country Serbia.
Many Russian migrants have also settled in Montenegro. And despite their homelands being at war, Russians and Ukrainians appear to live peacefully side by side in Montenegro and attend the same churches.
4. Nauru – 9.0 per cent
This small island state has received many boat refugees who were trying to get to Australia but were turned away by the Australian authorities. The UN refugee agency was highly critical of the agreement Australia had made with Nauru and other countries, and was concerned about the refugees' poor living conditions.
Strong international pressure, combined with the patient campaigning of Australian refugee organisations, led to Australia finally relenting and accepting the refugees it had previously detained in Aruba. A large number had also previously been sent to the United States as resettlement refugees, following an agreement between the Australian and American authorities.
Despite the condemnation Australia has received because of its practice of deporting refugees to Nauru and other locations, this very practice was the inspiration for the UK’s decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda (a decision which has since been reversed following the election of a new government in the UK).
5. Armenia – 8.7 per cent
In September 2023, Azerbaijan attacked the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which is located inside Azerbaijan. The enclave had been controlled by Armenian-backed separatists since Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent in the 1990s. Following the attack, virtually the entire Armenian population of over 140,000 fled to Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in an ongoing conflict ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, most of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan fled to Armenia, while Azeris fled from Armenia to Azerbaijan. Russia has traditionally acted as a sort of peacekeeper in the region, but the war in Ukraine has limited its ability to play the role it has previously played in the Caucasus.
Armenia had already integrated several hundred thousand people from the previous wave of refugees. Although the new arrivals have been welcomed, there are major challenges in finding new homes for such a large number of refugees who arrived almost overnight.
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1. Aruba – 16.1 per cent of the total population
Aruba is a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. The country has a population of just over 100,000. As a result of the crisis in neighbouring Venezuela, some 17,000 people have sought refuge in the small island state. Many more have attempted to reach Aruba but have been turned back.
Aruba still has close ties to the Netherlands, which also controls its foreign and security policy. The people of Aruba have the right to obtain a Dutch passport, and the authorities in both Aruba and the Netherlands are afraid that this will attract a large number of refugees and migrants if they do not pursue a strict asylum policy.
Due to the fear of being deported, as well as the fact that registered asylum seekers in Aruba are not allowed to work, most refugees and migrants live in hiding from the authorities and make a living in the informal part of the economy. As a result, it is difficult to know exactly how many have fled to the island. The figure of 17,000 is the UN refugee agency’s best estimate.
2. Curaçao – 14.4 per cent
Like Aruba, Curaçao is a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. Conditions for Venezuelan refugees and migrants living here are just as difficult as on the neighbouring island.
There are great similarities between Aruba and Curaçao when it comes to their relationship with the Netherlands. Both countries are autonomous, which means that they are not subject to EU asylum policy and refugee law. In one area, however, they differ. While Aruba has accepted to follow the UN Refugee Convention, Curaçao has refused to do so. This means that refugees in Curaçao have even less legal protection than in Aruba.
Amnesty International has criticised the authorities in the country for detaining refugees and denying them protection.
3. Montenegro – 10.7 per cent
Montenegro is one of Europe’s youngest nations and only gained its independence in 2006. The country is not yet a member of the European Union, and is therefore not part of the EU’s support mechanism for the reception of refugees. Nevertheless, Montenegro has received more refugees in relation to its population than any other European country in recent years.
When the war in Ukraine broke out, several million Ukrainians fled to European countries. Many settled in the countries bordering Ukraine. But Montenegro, a small country which is geographically remote from Ukraine, still received more refugees per capita than any of Ukraine’s neighbours.
The UN refugee agency has praised the authorities and people of Montenegro for the hospitality they have shown Ukrainian refugees. This positive attitude is one of the reasons why so many refugees have applied to Montenegro. There are close ties between these two Slavic peoples, who are also linguistically related. Paradoxically, relatively few Ukrainian refugees have received protection in Montenegro’s neighbouring country Serbia.
Many Russian migrants have also settled in Montenegro. And despite their homelands being at war, Russians and Ukrainians appear to live peacefully side by side in Montenegro and attend the same churches.
4. Nauru – 9.0 per cent
This small island state has received many boat refugees who were trying to get to Australia but were turned away by the Australian authorities. The UN refugee agency was highly critical of the agreement Australia had made with Nauru and other countries, and was concerned about the refugees' poor living conditions.
Strong international pressure, combined with the patient campaigning of Australian refugee organisations, led to Australia finally relenting and accepting the refugees it had previously detained in Aruba. A large number had also previously been sent to the United States as resettlement refugees, following an agreement between the Australian and American authorities.
Despite the condemnation Australia has received because of its practice of deporting refugees to Nauru and other locations, this very practice was the inspiration for the UK’s decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda (a decision which has since been reversed following the election of a new government in the UK).
5. Armenia – 8.7 per cent
In September 2023, Azerbaijan attacked the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which is located inside Azerbaijan. The enclave had been controlled by Armenian-backed separatists since Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent in the 1990s. Following the attack, virtually the entire Armenian population of over 140,000 fled to Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in an ongoing conflict ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, most of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan fled to Armenia, while Azeris fled from Armenia to Azerbaijan. Russia has traditionally acted as a sort of peacekeeper in the region, but the war in Ukraine has limited its ability to play the role it has previously played in the Caucasus.
Armenia had already integrated several hundred thousand people from the previous wave of refugees. Although the new arrivals have been welcomed, there are major challenges in finding new homes for such a large number of refugees who arrived almost overnight.
6. Lebanon – 8.7 per cent
Lebanon, with a population of 5.8 million, took in an estimated 1.2 million Syrian refugees in the years following 2011. The exact number is uncertain, because the national authorities demanded that the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) stop the registration of new refugees in 2015.
For many years, Lebanon topped the list of countries that had received the most refugees per capita in the previous ten years. However, because the year 2013, when most of the Syrians arrived, is now no longer covered by the ten-year period, Lebanon has fallen a few places on the list. This is also the reason why Jordan and Turkey have dropped out of the list this year.
Since 2019, the situation in Lebanon has gone from bad to worse, with Covid, civil protests, an economic crisis, the Beirut explosion of August 2020, and the conflict in Gaza all adding to the challenges. According to the World Bank, Lebanon’s economic crisis is one of the worst this century. The currency has lost 98 per cent of its value, and people’s savings and salaries have lost value accordingly.
Refugees have increasingly been scapegoated for the country’s problems, and pervasive anti-refugee rhetoric has been accompanied by heavy and discriminatory administrative measures. It is now extremely difficult for Syrian refugees to maintain legal residency in Lebanon, with just 20 per cent able to do so. Some 90 per cent of refugees live below the poverty line.
The escalating conflict in Gaza has again made the security situation in Lebanon very fragile. The country has come under heavy Israeli aerial strikes for more than a year now, leading to 1 million people being displaced in the space of a week. Hundreds of thousands of civilians – including Syrian refugees – have fled to Syria in search of safety.
7. Colombia – 5.6 per cent
Between 2018 and 2023, some 2.9 million Venezuelans reached neighbouring Colombia. Only a minority have received formal refugee status, but the UN refugee agency emphasises that displaced Venezuelans need protection and supports the authorities in Colombia, which have granted Venezuelans a 10-year temporary residence permit.
The humanitarian conditions for refugees in Colombia are still challenging, in a country that itself has more than five million people displaced within its borders. Colombia has experienced prolonged conflict, despite the peace initiatives of recent years. The level of violence within the country is high and this also affects vulnerable refugees and migrants.
8. Czech Republic – 5.1 per cent
Until war broke out in Ukraine, there had been very few refugees in the Czech Republic. Indeed, the country had been one of the most reluctant in Europe to accept refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
This contrasts sharply with the hospitality that has since been shown to refugees from Ukraine. Unlike Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the Czech Republic does not share a border with Ukraine. Nevertheless, it has accepted more refugees per capita than any of these countries. Only Montenegro has received more, relative to its population.
At the same time, opposition to non-European refugees coming to the Czech Republic is intensifying. In 2022, border controls were introduced to prevent Syrian refugees from entering from Slovakia. Together with Hungary and Poland, the Czech Republic refused to participate in the EU’s scheme for the relocation of refugees from Greece and Italy.
9. Moldova – 4.1 per cent
The Republic of Moldova is one of Europe's poorest countries and borders war-torn Ukraine. Moldova has faced major challenges with the sudden arrival of refugees following the escalation of the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, it has gone to great lengths to provide protection to fleeing Ukrainians.
A large number of Ukrainian refugees have travelled through Moldova on their way to seek safety in other European countries. Even so, over 100,000 have remained in this small country of just over three million inhabitants. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has praised Moldova's willingness and ability to provide protection to the Ukrainian refugees.
10. Estonia – 4.1 per cent
Until the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Estonia had accepted very few refugees. But in the last two years, the country has suddenly become one of the most significant hosting countries in the world in relation to its population. Over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have sought refuge in Estonia, which has only 1.3 million inhabitants.
Estonia, like the other two Baltic countries, Latvia and Lithuania, has stood out as one of Ukraine's most important supporters in Europe.
Many Ukrainian refugees in Estonia have been quickly integrated into working life, to a greater extent than in many other European countries.
Note: The figures in this article include all those who have come as resettlement refugees, those have been granted individual protection or temporary collective protection, and those defined by UNHCR as being in a refugee situation without having been granted refugee status. Asylum seekers who are waiting to have their asylum application processed are not included.
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