Refugees and Displaced
Syria’s neighbors have been making it harder for migrants to cross into their territories.
About 11 million Syrians displaced, four million abroad, since 2011.
In Iraq, nearly three million displaced since Dec. 2013.
Taxing the Neighbors
Years of violence in Iraq and Syria have stretched the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate the displaced. In Jordan, unemployment has almost doubled since 2011 in areas with high concentrations of refugees, according to a recent International Labor Organization study. Lebanon began to require visas from Syrians in January. Refugees now make up about 20 percent of Lebanon’s population. In March, Turkey announced it would close the two remaining border gates with Syria.
Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, an ethnic minority from Myanmar, have fled from poverty and persecution.
25,000 boarded smugglers’ boats in the first quarter of this year.
Rohingyas are denied citizenship and basic rights in Myanmar.
Fleeing by Sea
Indonesia and Malaysia, countries that in the past have quietly taken in many refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar, first reacted to the new rise in migrants by vowing to send back smugglers’ boats. Facing public pressure, they reversed their stance in mid-May, saying they would provide shelter to migrants still at sea. An absence of landings and a paucity of sightings suggest that the inflow has subsided.
Mediterranean Sea
The European Union wants to stop smugglers near the African coast. European governments are divided over the fates of those who reach shore.
78,000 people migrated this year. 1,800 died in the sea.
Civil war in Libya has made human trafficking easier.
Division Over How to Respond
In May, European leaders said they would form a naval force based in Italy to combat people-smuggling. This week, the European Commission appealed to the bloc’s member states to accept quotas of migrants to relieve the burden on southern states, like Italy and Greece, which are the main landing points for them. Poverty and war in places like Libya, South Sudan and Nigeria are driving migrants to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.
ITALY
Each circle represents an incident, sized by number dead or missing. Unfilled circles are reports that have only been partially verified.
Fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists has severely damaged Ukraine’s industrial belt.
1.3 million displaced inside Ukraine.
867,000 Ukrainians have left the country, most to Russia.
Crippled Economy
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled to Russia. But European Union countries, like Poland, Germany and Italy, which are among the top destinations for asylum seekers, have rejected most applications from Ukrainians. Less than a third of the $316 million needed in 2015 for the United Nations’s humanitarian response has been raised so far. The conflict was particularly damaging to Ukraine’s economy, which is expected to shrink 9 percent by the end of the year.
