Bangladesh ranked 14th among the top 20 refugee-hosting countries across the globe and the country comes ninth in relation to its national economy, hosting 111 refugees per 1 USD GDP per capita (PPP), said the UN refugee agency.
The report titled UNHCR Global Trends 2013 said Pakistan is the highest refugee-hosting countries across the world while Bangladesh is the 14th with 2,31,100 refugee people.
Pakistan had also the highest number of refugees in relation to its national economy, hosting 512 refugees per 1 USD GDP (PPP) per capita.
The number of people forced to flee their homes across the world has exceeded 50 million for the first time since the second world war, an exponential rise that is stretching host countries and aid organisations to breaking point, said the UNHCR report released on Friday.
More than 2.5 million persons were forced to abandon their homes and seek protection outside the borders of their countries, mostly to next-door neighbours.
The year 2013 was marked by a continuation of multiple refugee crises, reaching levels unseen since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. By the end of -2013, some 51.2 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations.
The global figure included 33.3 million internally displaced persons and close to 1.2 million asylum-seekers. If these 51.2 million persons were a nation, they would make up the 26th largest in the world.
Reflecting a shifting international dynamic, Afghanistan, which in the previous two years was the world’s principal country of origin for asylum-seekers, ranked third in terms of new claims behind Syria and the Russian Federation. Among the top-10 countries of origin, six are experiencing violence or conflict – Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan.
“We are seeing here the immense costs of not ending wars, of failing to resolve or prevent conflict. Peace is today dangerously in deficit. Humanitarians can help as a palliative, but political solutions are vitally needed. Without this, the alarming levels of conflict and the mass suffering that is reflected in these figures will continue,” said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The UN refugee agency said there was a sharp rise in asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries over the course of last year, driven primarily by the crisis in Syria.
For 2013, the biggest increase in asylum applicants by region was in the 38 countries of Europe which together received 484,600 claims – an increase of a third from 2012.
Germany was the largest single recipient with 109,600 new asylum claims. France (60,100) and Sweden (54,300) were also major receivers.
Turkey, currently the biggest refugee-hosting country in Europe due to the Syria crisis (a registered Syrian refugee population of 640,889 as of March 18) also saw 44,800 asylum claims lodged last year, mainly from nationals of Iraq and Afghanistan. Italy received 27,800 claims and Greece 8,200.
North America received the second highest number of asylum claims, amounting to nearly 98,800 in total. Here, however, the main country of origin of applicants was China.
Canada, with its recent changes in asylum policies, received some 10,400 claims – half the number seen in 2012 (20,500).
The United States (88,400) has long been a leading country of asylum in industrialized countries, and in 2013 was second only to Germany in the number of applications received.
In East Asia and the Pacific, both Japan (3,300) and the Republic of Korea (1,600) received higher numbers of claims relative to previous years. Australia (24,300) too saw a significant rise from 2012 levels (15,800), putting it almost on par with levels seen in Italy.
