Dear List Members,
The U.S. Committee for Refugees recently reported in their latest e-mail
news summary that "At least 1.5 million people in Africa fled their
homes during the first eight months of this year because of war, violence,
or political repression. Africa's newly uprooted population is equivalent
to
nearly 50,000 new refugees and internally displaced people per week. The
newly uprooted people join millions of other Africans who remain refugees or
internally displaced from previous years; a cumulative total of some 14.2
million Africans are currently uprooted and unable to return home."
(Source: "The Crisis in Africa," 6 Sept. 2000,
http://refugees.org/news/press_releases/2000/090600.htm)
As the following publications point out, reliable data on forced migration
populations can be difficult to compile; at the same time, they are
important for research, policy formation, and planning purposes.
- Jeff Crisp, "Who Has Counted the Refugees? UNHCR and the Politics of
Numbers," _New Issues in Refugee Research_, Working Paper No. 12, June
1999 -http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/pub/wpapers/wpno12.htm
- Holly Reed et al., _The Demography of Forced Migration: Summary of a
Workshop_, National Academy Press, 1998 -
http://bob.nap.edu/books/0309061415/html
- Susanne Schmeidl, "Comparative Trends in Forced Displacement: IDPs and
Refugees, 1964-96, " in _Internally Displaced People: A Global Survey_,
1998 -
http://www.nrc.no/global_idp_survey/internally_displaced_people/schmeidl.htm
A number of resources that attempt to meet the need for statistical data are
available online; for example:
2000 IFRC World Disaster Report, Summary Data (CRED) -
http://www.cred.be/emdat/images/wdr/wdr2000.htm
- Disaster data presented in 16 tables from chapter 9 of the most recent
World Disasters Report.
Asian Migration Atlas (Scalabrini Migration Center) -
http://www.scalabrini.asn.au/atlas/amatlas.htm
- Useful fact book organized by country; includes basic country data along
with overviews of migration patterns.
Asylum Statistics (Inter-Governmental Consultations) -
http://www.igc.ch/frstatistics.htm
- Provides data for asylum applications filed in Europe, North America, and
Australia, since 1992.
Global Overview (Global IDP Project) -
http://www.idpproject.org/global_overview.htm
- Table displaying summary data for the number of IDPs in the countries
profiled in the global IDP database.
Statistics (UNHCR) - http://www.unhcr.ch/statist/main.htm
- Includes recently published "Refugees and Others of Concern: A Statistical
Overview" covering 1999; previous issues are available as of 1995. Also
posted are statistical reports for Europe. (Note: Recent publications are
provided in .pdf format.)
Statistics 2000 (U.S. Committee for Refugees) -
http://www.refugees.org/world/statistics/wrs00_tableindex.htm
- Statistical tables from the 2000 edition of the World Refugee Survey.
Other potential sources for statistical data on refugees and asylum are
government bodies (e.g., Office federal des refugies, Suisse,
http://www.asyl.admin.ch/franz/publ2f.htm) and NGOs (e.g., Lithuanian Red
Cross, http://lrk.redcross.lt/pabegeliai_en.html - scroll to bottom).
Elisa Mason
Consultant, Forced Migration Portal Project
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford
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