Refugee

Refugees in 2022[1]
Total population
c. 35.3 million
(29.4 million under the mandate of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 5.9 million under UNRWA's mandate
Regions with significant populations
Sub-Saharan Africa7.0 million
Europe and North Asia12.4 million
Asia and the Pacific6.8 million
Middle East and North Africa2.4 million
Americas800,000

A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a person who has lost the protection of their country of origin and who cannot or is unwilling to return there due to well-founded fear of persecution.[2] Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the contracting state or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)[3] if they formally make a claim for asylum.[4]

Konrad Schumann, an East German border guard, fleeing East Germany towards West Germany in 1962
  1. ^ "UNHCR data | Global Trends". Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  2. ^ Reyhani, Adel-Naim (6 September 2022). "Refugees". Elgar Encyclopedia of Human Rights. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 121–128. doi:10.4337/9781789903621.refugees. ISBN 978-1-78990-362-1.
  3. ^ Convention Protocol relating 1967.
  4. ^ Truth about asylum.