A Swelling Population of Refugees
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that the number of refugees worldwide reached 51 million in 2013. That was the largest number since the end of World War II.
War and civil strife account for most of the collective exodus. To cite but one troubled region, aggression by Daesh, the self-described Islamic State, and other radical groups has displaced millions of Syrians and Iraqis. Most of the refugees seek asylum in neighboring nations, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, and in the fundamentally open-door nations of Europe. Even the act of seeking sanctuary, however, can entail serious risk. Witness the tragic capsizing of a ship overloaded with nearly 1,000 Libyan refugees in the Mediterranean Sea in April 2015.
The number of applications for refugee status in the world’s rich nations reached 866,000 in 2014. That was a 45% increase over the previous year and the highest total in 22 years. Germany handled the most applications at 173,100, followed by the United States at 121,200.