WORLD

The Global Struggle to Respond to the Worst Refugee Crisis in Generations

By PATRICK BOEHLER and SERGIO PEÇANHA JUNE 8, 2015

Eleven million people were uprooted by violence last year, most propelled by conflict in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and Afghanistan. Conflict and extreme poverty have also pushed tens of thousands out of parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Here’s a look at the international response to what has become the worst migration crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations.

Refugees and Displaced

38 million

displaced inside

their countries

30 million

16.7 million

refugees* in

foreign countries

1989

’95

’00

’05

’10

’14

Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.
*Most recent refugee data for 2013.

SYRIA AND IRAQ

Syria’s neighbors have been making it harder for migrants to cross into their territories.

Kurdish women and children from Syria at a Turkish military checkpoint near Kobani, a Syrian town badly damaged by the war last year. Bryan Denton for The New York Times

About 11 million Syrians displaced, four million abroad, since 2011.

In Iraq, nearly three million displaced since December 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.

Syrian refugees

As of June 5, 2015

TURKEY

1.7 million

IRAN

249,000

SYRIA

6.5 million

LEBANON

1.2 million

IRAQ

2.9 million

Mediterranean Sea

JORDAN

628,000

EGYPT

134,000

People displaced inside

their home country

The New York Times|Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya, an ethnic minority from Myanmar, have fled from poverty and persecution.

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar at a temporary shelter in Bayeun, Indonesia, in late May.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

25,000 boarded smugglers’ boats in the first quarter of this year.

Rohingya 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.

BANGLADESH

CHINA

300 Miles

INDIA

MYANMAR

VIETNAM

Cox’s Bazar

Kyauktaw

LAOS

RAKHINE

STATE

Bay of

Bengal

THAILAND

Main

maritime

routes

CAMBODIA

Andaman

Sea

Gulf of

Thailand

Indian

Ocean

MALAYSIA

INDONESIA

The New York Times|Source: International Organization for Migration

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.

Migrants caught in limbo at the Abu Salim detention center in Tripoli, Libya, in late April.Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

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.

GREECE

SICILY

TURKEY

TUNISIA

800

Mediterranean Sea

Tripoli

Benghazi

LIBYA

EGYPT

200 Miles

The New York Times|Source: International Organization for Migration

UKRAINE

Fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists has severely damaged Ukraine’s industrial belt.

Refugees at a camp in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in August. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

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’ 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.