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Record high of 20 million refugees worldwide

CCTV.com

06-20-2016 12:47 BJT

Today (Monday) marks the 16th World Refugee Day. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, the number of refugees worldwide has reached almost 20 million -- a record high since World War II.

In 2015,  24 people were forced to flee their homes every minute. Forcibly displaced people worldwide reached 65.3 million. Among them are nearly 20 million refugees. And more than half are under 18.

10 million people remain stateless, and are denied access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. Over 50% of the refugees come from war-torn states like Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, with Syria topping the list at 4.9 million.

In 2015, more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe. The mass migration led to 2 million asylum applications in 38 European countries, almost triple the numbers in 2014.

Within the EU, Sweden and Germany received 50 percent of all applicants. Middle Eastern countries host the highest number of displaced, followed by Africa.

Currently, Turkey is hosting the largest number of refugees with over 2.7 million registered, followed by Lebanon with over a million, and Jordan with over 600,000.

Germany has received most of the refugees within the Europe Union with over 600,000. The United Stated bottomed the list, settling only about 4000 Syrian refugees.

The UNHCR said the Middle Eastern countries have been affected the most by the influx of refugees, both socially and economically. The number of arriving refugees in the Middle East can fill up 59 soccer fields, eight in Europe, and one tenth of it in America.

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