List of largest refugee crises

This is a list of largest refugee crises to occur.

List

The list below includes the number of refugees per event with at least one million individuals included. This list does not include internally displaced people (IDP). For events for which estimates vary, the geometric mean of the lowest and highest estimates is calculated to rank the events.

Event Refugees estimate Location From Until Duration Ref.
World War II 40.0–60.0 million Europe 1939 1945 6 years [1][2][3][4][5][6]
Partition of India 10.0–20.0 million Indian subcontinent 1947 1948 1 year [7][8]
Bangladesh Liberation War 10.0 million 1971 1979 8 years [9]
World War I 7.0–15.0 million Europe 1914 1918 4 years [10][11][12]
Syrian refugee crisis 6.8 million Syria 2011 present 11 years [13]
Soviet–Afghan War 6.2 million Afghanistan 1978 1989 11 years [14]
Venezuelan refugee crisis 6.0 million Venezuela 2014 present 8 years [15][16]
Ukrainian refugee crisis 5.6 million Ukraine, Europe 2022 present 2 months [17]
Indochina refugee crisis 3.0 million Cambodia
Laos
Vietnam		 1975 2000 25 years [18]
Yugoslav Wars 2.4 million Yugoslavia
and successor states,
Europe		 1991 2001 10 years [19]
Iraq War 2.2 million Iraq 2003 2012 9 years [20]
Great Lakes refugee crisis 2.1 million Rwanda 1994 1996 2 years [21]
1991 Iraqi uprisings 1.8 million Iraq 1991 1991 8 months [18]
Mozambican Civil War 1.7 million Mozambique 1977 1992 15 years [18]
South Sudanese Civil War 1.5 million South Sudan 2011 2020 9 years [22]
Rohingya genocide 1.3 million Myanmar 2016 present 6 years [23]
Korean War 1.0–5.0 million Korea 1950 1953 3 years [24][25]
Algerian War 1.0 million Algeria 1954 1962 6 years [18]
Great Famine (Ireland) 1.0 million Ireland 1845 1849 4 years [26]
First Libyan Civil War 1.0 million Libya 2011 2011 8 months [27]
Somali Civil War 1.0 million Somalia 1991 present 31 years [28]
Palestinian refugees 5.6 million+ [note 1] Palestine 1947 present 75 years [29]

See also

Notes
  1. The original number of refugees in 1947-49 is around 700,000. Unlike other refugee groups, the descendants of Palestinian refugees are themselves considered refugees by the United Nations through UNRWA rather than UNHCR.

References
  1. The State of The World’s Refugees 2000: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action. Oxford University Press. 2000. p. 13.
  2. Reporting on Migrants and Refugees: Handbook for Journalism Educators. France: UNESCO. 2021. p. 21. ISBN 978-92-3-100456-8.
  3. Orchard, Phil (2014). A Right to Flee: Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781139923293.
  4. Frank, Matthew; Reinisch, Jessica (2017). Refugees in Europe, 1919–1959: A Forty Years’ Crisis?. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 147, 153. ISBN 978-1-4742-9573-4.
  5. Rothman, Lily; Ronk, Liz (2015-09-11). "This Is What Europe's Last Major Refugee Crisis Looked Like". Time. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  6. Gatrell, Peter (2017). "The Question of Refugees: Past and Present". Origins. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  7. "The State of The World's Refugees 2000" (PDF). UNHCR. 2000.
  8. Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar (2013). "India–Pakistan Partition 1947 and forced migration". doi:10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm285. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert (2008). Dictionary of Genocide: A-L. ABC-CLIO. p. 34. ISBN 9780313346422.
  10. Gatrell, Peter; Zhvanko, Liubov (2017). Europe on the Move: Refugees in the Era of the Great War. United Kingdom: Manchester University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781784994419.
  11. Gatrell, Peter (2008). "Refugees and Forced Migrants during the First World War". Immigrants & Minorities. 26: 82–110 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  12. Chase, Gummer (2014). "World War I Centenary: Migration in Europe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
  13. "Refugee Data Finder". UNHCR. November 10, 2021. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  14. Rupert Colville (1997). "Refugees Magazine Issue 108 (Afghanistan : the unending crisis) - The biggest caseload in the world". UNHCR.
  15. "$1.79 billion needed to help Venezuelan refugees and migrants". UN News. December 9, 2021.
  16. Wyss, Jim (13 August 2019). "A nation is vanishing: Has Venezuela lost almost 20 percent of its population?". The Miami Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  17. "Refugees fleeing Ukraine (since 24 February 2022)". UNHCR. 2022.
  18. State of the World's Refugees, 2000 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  19. Watkins, Clem S. (2003). The Balkans. New York City: Nova Publishers. p. 10. ISBN 9781590335253.
  20. "UN agencies launch $85-million appeal to aid 2.2 million Iraqi refugees". UN News. September 18, 2007.
  21. Prunier 2009, pp. 24–25
  22. "Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General". United Nations. 2017-02-10.
  23. "WHO appeals for international community support; warns of grave health risks to Rohingya refugees in rainy season - Bangladesh". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  24. "The biggest refugee movements in history". MSN. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  25. "Population and Manpower of Korea 1954" (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. 13 September 1954.
  26. Irelands' Population in the mid 1800s
  27. "2013 UNHCR country operations profile - Libya". UNCHR. 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  28. "Registered Somali Refugee Population". UNHCR. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  29. "UN agency for Palestinian refugees launches $95 million appeal to keep COVID at bay". UN News. September 4, 2020.
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