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#WorldRefugeeDay Map Monday: Global refugee movements over 40 years

Between 1975 and 2014, the number of refugees that have been forced to flee their homes due to attacks on their safety multiplied seven times.

Today is #WorldRefugeeDay, a day marked by the United Nations to raise awareness of the situation of refugees around the world.

The Refugee Project has collected data to map the migration of refugees over three decades.

It also lists the top three countries where refugees originated from, the top three countries were they sought asylum and some of the most headline grabbing events behind their decisions to flee.

For example, in South Africa in 1975, 1 360 people left the country in 1975, presumably fleeing into exile to escape the apartheid government.

This number increased to 2 180 in 1976 (this could be attributed to the high number of youths fleeing after the 16th June uprisings).

The top countries of asylum for those fleeing the country during the above two years were Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia.

In 2014, only 392 individuals with refugee status left South Africa, heading mostly to the UK, US and Canada, while a massive 112 112 arrived in the country as refugees, mostly from Somalia, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

In 1975, most refugees worldwide came from Angola (496 830) and US was the top country where refugees sought asylum (530 000).

In 2014, over three million refugees fled Syria, making it the top country of origin, followed by Afghanistan and Somalia.

Turkey absorbed most of these refugees (over one million), followed very closely by Pakistan and Lebanon.

You can view the full map on The Refugee Project

[Source – The Refugee Project, image – CC 2.0 by Jordi Bernabeu Farrús]

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