In 2015, UNCHR, the UN Refugee Agency, counted 60 million people who were forced to leave their homes. Out of these 60 million, 20 million were refugees, according to the Refugee Convention of 1951. This is the highest number of women, men and children on the move since the Second World War. About 87 per cent of the world’s refugees left their country and were given protection in their neighbouring countries, mostly in the global south. Europe has only given protection to around 10 per cent of the world’s refugees. Although the numbers of refugees in the EU have been comparably low from a worldwide perspective, 2015 was the year in which several EU member states stated over and over that the EU might break apart due to the refugee situation and the lack of the sharing of the burden between EU states. More information is available here.
Source: Civicus
