Refugee Numbers Remain Mostly Stable

According to UN data, refugee crises have remained mostly stable in the pandemic year of 2020. The organization put the number of Syrian refugees that have not been resettled at 6.7 million, the same as in 2019. While the number of such refugees from Venezuela and South Sudan dipped slightly, the number of those having fled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and looking for a new home rose.

The Venezuela refugee crisis had been growing majorly in 2019 but is no longer believed to surpass the crisis in Syria anytime soon. While the number of Syrian refugees and those in a refugee-like situation had risen incrementally since 2011, Venezuelan refugee numbers jumped up quickly starting in 2017, prompting fears that organizations in the region were unequipped to handle the situation much longer.

Brookings Institution, which analyzed the data, notes that compared to the Syrian crisis, the Venezuelarefugee situation is severely underfunded, putting the lives of hundred thousands of people at risk because of the lack of food and medical assistance.