What do or don’t you know about the refugee crisis in 2017?

68.5 million

In its annual Global Trends report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) says that at the end of 2017 68.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict or generalised violence; of these, 16.2 million were newly displaced during the course of the year. This figure was the equivalent of an average of 44,400 people being forced to flee their homes every day, or one person every two seconds. This situation was largely the result of the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war in South Sudan and the arrival in Bangladesh of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar.

The 68.5 million forcibly displaced include 25.4 million refugees who have left their country, 2.9 million more than in 2016 and the biggest increase registered by Unhcr in a year; 3.1 million asylum seekers; and 40 million internally displaced persons, compared to 40.3 million in 2016.

Source: Unhcr

Turkey

In absolute terms, for the fourth consecutive year Turkey hosted the largest number of refugees worldwide (3.5 million, up by approximately 600,000 over 2016, when the number stood at 2.9 million), followed by Pakistan (1.4 million) and Uganda (1.4 million), according to Unhcr’s annual Global Trends report. Instead Lebanon continued to host the largest number of refugees relative to its national population, where 1 in 6 people was a refugee under the responsibility of Unhcr. It is worth noting that, with the sole exception of Germany in sixth place, the top ten host countries in absolute terms are all developing countries as defined by the United Nations: in other words, it is poor countries in particular that carry the burden of reception.

Source: Unhcr.

Approximately 175,000

178,500 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2017 according to Unhcr figures. This was a sharp reduction with respect to the year before (362,300) and to 2015 (1,015,000). Of total arrivals, 119,369 arrived in Italy from north Africa, 29,718 arrived in Greece from Turkey and 28,349 arrived in Spain or in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.

It is worth noting how arrivals fell both to Italy (-34.2 per cent from 181,436 arrivals in 2016) and to Greece (-82.9 per cent from 173,450 arrivals in 2016) as a result of agreements with the main countries of departure (respectively Libya and Turkey), while arrivals to Spain doubled (14,094 in 2016).

Source: Unhcr.

Approximately 3 thousand

Some 3,139 people are known to have died or were reported missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2017. This compares to 5,143 the year before. The majority of dead and missing were recorded along the so-called central Mediterranean route leading from north Africa to Italy (2,853, or 90.9 per cent of the total).

Source: Iom and Unhcr.

Nigeria.

The biggest group by nationality of those who arrived in Italy in 2017 came from Nigeria, with 18,100 arrivals (15.2 per cent of the total), trailed by Guinea with 9,700 arrivals (8.1 per cent) and Ivory Coast with 9,500 arrivals (8 per cent). Other countries with a strong representation include, in descending order, Bangladesh, Mali, Eritrea, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal.

Source: Unhcr.

Approximately 15 thousand

In total 15,779 unaccompanied foreign minors arrived in Italy in 2017, or 13.2 per cent of total arrivals. This compares to ‘just’ 1,558 minors who arrived in the company of a legally responsible adult. The figure amounts to a 33 per cent drop over the 25,846 unaccompanied minors registered in 2016. The unaccompanied minors who arrived in Italy in 2017 were primarily African: the top five countries of origin included Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Nigeria.

It is also worth noting that for many of these young people Italy is not the final destination, but rather a country of transit on their way to join their loved ones in other parts of Europe. Relatively few young people apply for international protection in Italy, while many try to leave the reception facilities where they are housed and continue their onwards journey. In 2017 in total 9,782 unaccompanied foreign minors made applications for international protection, while according to ministerial data updated to the end of December 2017 there were 18,303 minors present in the reception system and an additional 5,828 who were untraceable.

Read our feature on unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy.

Source: Unhcr; Ministry of Labour -General management for immigration and integration policies.

Approximately 13 thousand.

In total 13,121 women arrived in Italy in 2017, accounting for 11 per cent of the total – a significant minority with respect to men, who totalled 88,911, or 75 per cent. Of the women, 5,425 were Nigerian and the majority were probably the victim of trafficking (Iom estimates that in 2016 approximately 80 per cent of the Nigerian women and adolescents who arrived in Italy were destined for commercial sexual exploitation).

Read our feature the path of victims of sex trafficking.

Source: Iom, Unhcr.

Approximately 130 thousand.

Some 130,119 asylum applications were presented in Italy in 2017. This represents a 5.27 per cent increase with respect to the 123,600 applications presented in 2016. Instead the number of requests examined dropped by 10.5 per cent, from 91,102 in 2016 to 81,527 last year.

The leading country of origin for asylum applications in Italy in 2017 was Nigeria (25,964 applications, translating into nearly 20 per cent of the total), followed by Bangladesh (12,731 applications), Pakistan (9,728), Gambia (9,085) and Senegal (8,680). Syria was in twelfth place with 2,270 requests, up 43 per cent over the previous year.

Source: Ministry of the interior.

Approximately two fifths.

Of the 81,527 requests for international protection examined by Italy in 2017, 33,873 -or 41.5 per cent – had a positive outcome: 6,827 were granted refugee status (8.4 per cent of total applications examined), 6,880 subsidiary protection (8.4 per cent) and 20,166 humanitarian protection (24.7 per cent). Instead 46,992 applicants (57.6 per cent of the total) received a negative response and 662 (0.8 per cent) saw other outcomes. The figures are in line with 2015 and 2016, when respectively 58 per cent and 56 per cent of applications were turned down.

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Approximately 8,800

In 2017 8,800 asylum seekers were transferred from Italy under the relocation scheme launched by the European Commission in September 2015 in support of Member states finding themselves on the front line in managing the flows of migrants and refugees into Europe. Since the start of the program (and as of April 2018) about 12,600 have been relocated. In 2017, yhey were almost exclusively Eritrean nationals (95 per cent of cases); only 521 (4.5 per cent) were Syrian and 98 of other nationalities (0.6 per cent) that are entitled to access the programme. The group included 1,083 accompanied and 99 unaccompanied minors. The applicants for international protection were relocated particularly to Germany, which took in 43 per cent, followed by Sweden (10.6 per cent) and Switzerland (7.8 per cent). Though not part of the EU, the latter made places available for relocation as a result of bilateral agreements with Italy.

Source: Fondazione Ismu