Refugees and internally displaced persons

This entry includes those persons residing in a country as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), or stateless persons. Each country's refugee entry includes only countries of origin that are the source of refugee populations of 5,000 or more. The definition of a refugee according to a UN Convention is "a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution." The UN established the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1950 to handle refugee matters worldwide. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has a different operational definition for a Palestinian refugee: "a person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." The term internally displaced person is not specifically covered in the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; it is used to describe people who have fled their homes for reasons similar to refugees, but who remain within their own national territory and are subject to the laws of that state. A stateless person is defined as someone who is not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law, according to the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.

• Afghanistan

  refugees (country of origin): 72,188 (Pakistan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: 4.314 million (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to natural disasters and political instability) (2021)

• Albania

  stateless persons: 1,528 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 41,804 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2022)

• Algeria

  refugees (country of origin): more than 100,000 (Sahrawi, mostly living in Algerian-sponsored camps in the southwestern Algerian town of Tindouf) (2018); 6,750 (Syria) (mid-year 2021)

• Angola

  refugees (country of origin): 37,158 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,272 (Guinea), 6,357 (Cote d'Ivoire), 5,725 (Mauritania) (2022)

• Argentina

  refugees (country of origin): 170,517 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)

• Armenia

  refugees (country of origin): 38,774 (Azerbaijan), 5,205 (Syria - ethnic Armenians) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: 892 (mid-year 2021)

• Aruba

  refugees (country of origin): 17,000 (Venezuela) (2021)

• Australia

  refugees (country of origin): 12,701 (Iran), 10,108 (Afghanistan), 5,400 (Pakistan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: 5,770 (mid-year 2021)

• Austria

  refugees (country of origin): 57,887 (Syria), 41,037 (Afghanistan), 9,661 (Iraq), 8,212 (Somalia), 7,046 (Iran), 7,003 (Russia) (mid-year 2021); 90,126 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 3,229 (mid-year 2021)

• Azerbaijan

  IDPs: 655,000 (conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh; IDPs are mainly ethnic Azerbaijanis but also include ethnic Kurds, Russians, and Turks predominantly from occupied territories around Nagorno-Karabakh; includes IDPs' descendants, returned IDPs, and people living in insecure areas and excludes people displaced by natural disasters; around half the IDPs live in the capital Baku) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 3,585 (mid-year 2021)

• Bangladesh

  refugees (country of origin): 950,972 (Burma) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 427,000 (conflict, development, human rights violations, religious persecution, natural disasters) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 889,704 (mid-year 2021)

• Belarus

  refugees (country of origin): 17,787 (Ukraine) (as of 13 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 6,104 (mid-year 2021)

• Belgium

  refugees (country of origin): 18,493 (Syria), 5,094 (Iraq) (2020); 64,436 (Ukraine) (as of 13 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 1,159 (mid-year 2021)

• Bolivia

  refugees (country of origin): 12,400 (Venezuela) (2022)

• Bosnia and Herzegovina

  refugees (country of origin): 5,112 (Croatia) (2020)
  
  IDPs: 92,000 (Bosnian Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks displaced by inter-ethnic violence, human rights violations, and armed conflict during the 1992-95 war) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 149 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 110,085 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2022)

• Brazil

  refugees (country of origin): 261,441 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2020)
  
  IDPs: 21,000
  
  stateless persons: 14 (mid-year 2021)

• Brunei

  stateless persons: 20,863 (mid-year 2021); note - thousands of stateless persons, often ethnic Chinese, are permanent residents and their families have lived in Brunei for generations; obtaining citizenship is difficult and requires individuals to pass rigorous tests on Malay culture, customs, and language; stateless residents receive an International Certificate of Identity, which enables them to travel overseas; the government is considering changing the law prohibiting non-Bruneians, including stateless permanent residents, from owning land

• Bulgaria

  refugees (country of origin): 19,014 (Syria) (mid-year 2021); 51,140 (Ukraine) (as of 13 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 1,143 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 84,937 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2022); Bulgaria is predominantly a transit country

• Burkina Faso

  refugees (country of origin): 33,611 (Mali) (2022)
  
  IDPs:

  1,761,915 (2022)

• Burma

  IDPs: 671,011 (government offensives against armed ethnic minority groups near its borders with China and Thailand, natural disasters, forced land evictions) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 600,000 (mid-year 2021); note - Rohingya Muslims, living predominantly in Rakhine State, are Burma's main group of stateless people; the Burmese Government does not recognize the Rohingya as a "national race" and stripped them of their citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, categorizing them as "non-nationals" or "foreign residents;" under the Rakhine State Action Plan drafted in October 2014, the Rohingya must demonstrate their family has lived in Burma for at least 60 years to qualify for a lesser naturalized citizenship and the classification of Bengali or be put in detention camps and face deportation; native-born but non-indigenous people, such as Indians, are also stateless; the Burmese Government does not grant citizenship to children born outside of the country to Burmese parents who left the country illegally or fled persecution, such as those born in Thailand; the number of stateless persons has decreased dramatically because hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 25 August 2017 to escape violence

• Burundi

  refugees (country of origin): 85,470 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 84,791 (some ethnic Tutsis remain displaced from intercommunal violence that broke out after the 1993 coup and fighting between government forces and rebel groups; violence since April 2015) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 767 (mid-year 2021)

• Cabo Verde

  stateless persons: 115 (mid-year 2021)

• Cambodia

  stateless persons: 57,444 (mid-year 2021)

• Cameroon

  refugees (country of origin): 355,667 (Central African Republic), 132,151 (Nigeria) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 975,786 (2022) (includes far north, northwest, and southwest)

• Canada

  refugees (country of origin): 22,400 (Venezuela) (refugees and migrants) (2020); 9,883 (Nigeria), 7,571 (Turkey), 7,385 (Iran), 6,965 (Pakistan), 6,287 (China), 5,244 (Colombia) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: 3,823 (mid-year 2021)

• Central African Republic

  refugees (country of origin): 6,351 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 484,335 (clashes between army and rebel groups since 2005; tensions between ethnic groups) (2022)

• Chad

  refugees (country of origin): 394,666 (Sudan), 124,538 (Central African Republic), 35,907 (Cameroon), 20,388 (Nigeria) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 381,289 (majority are in the east) (2022)

• Chile

  refugees (country of origin): 448,138 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2020)

• China

  refugees (country of origin): 303,107 (Vietnam), undetermined (North Korea) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: undetermined (2021)

• Colombia

  refugees (country of origin): 1,842,390 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 8,258,460 (conflict between government and illegal armed groups and drug traffickers since 1985) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 11 (mid-year 2021)

• Congo, Democratic Republic of the

  refugees (country of origin): 212,120 (Central African Republic), 209,798 (Rwanda), 56,653 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 41,836 (Burundi) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 5.53 million (fighting between government forces and rebels since mid-1990s; conflict in Kasai region since 2016) (2022)

• Congo, Republic of the

  refugees (country of origin): 29,229 (Central African Republic), 22,150 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 159,830 (multiple civil wars since 1992) (2022)

• Costa Rica

  refugees (country of origin): 29,906 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 205 (mid-year 2021)

• Cote d'Ivoire

  IDPs: 302,000 (post-election conflict in 2010-11, as well as civil war from 2002-04; land disputes; most pronounced in western and southwestern regions) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 952,969 (mid-year 2021); note - many Ivoirians lack documentation proving their nationality, which prevent them from accessing education and healthcare; birth on Ivorian soil does not automatically result in citizenship; disputes over citizenship and the associated rights of the large population descended from migrants from neighboring countries is an ongoing source of tension and contributed to the country's 2002 civil war; some observers believe the government's mass naturalizations of thousands of people over the last couple of years is intended to boost its electoral support base; the government in October 2013 acceded to international conventions on statelessness and in August 2013 reformed its nationality law, key steps to clarify the nationality of thousands of residents; since the adoption of the Abidjan Declaration to eradicate statelessness in West Africa in February 2015, 6,400 people have received nationality papers in Cote d'Ivoire; in September 2020, Cote d'Ivoire adopted Africa's first statelessness determination procedure to regularize the status of stateless people

• Croatia

  refugees (country of origin): 19,753 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 2,910 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 771,932 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2022)

• Curacao

  refugees (country of origin): 14,200 (Venezuela) (2021)

• Cyprus

  refugees (country of origin): 9,820 (Syria) (mid-year 2021); 14,551 (Ukraine) (as of 13 December 2022)
  
  IDPs: 242,000 (both Turkish and Greek Cypriots; many displaced since 1974) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 66 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 47,836 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2022)

• Czechia

  refugees (country of origin): 472,473 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 1,498 (mid-year 2021)

• Denmark

  refugees (country of origin): 19,833 (Syria), 5,634 (Eritrea) (mid-year 2021); 38,582 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 11,608 (mid-year 2021)

• Djibouti

  refugees (country of origin): 5,972 (Yemen) (mid-year 2021); 14,227 (Somalia) (2021)

• Dominican Republic

  refugees (country of origin): 115,283 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 133,770 (2016); note - a September 2013 Constitutional Court ruling revoked the citizenship of those born after 1929 to immigrants without proper documentation, even though the constitution at the time automatically granted citizenship to children born in the Dominican Republic and the 2010 constitution provides that constitutional provisions cannot be applied retroactively; the decision overwhelmingly affected people of Haitian descent whose relatives had come to the Dominican Republic since the 1890s as a cheap source of labor for sugar plantations; a May 2014 law passed by the Dominican Congress regularizes the status of those with birth certificates but will require those without them to prove they were born in the Dominican Republic and to apply for naturalization; the government has issued documents to thousands of individuals who may claim citizenship under this law, but no official estimate has been released

• Ecuador

  refugees (country of origin): 65,854 (Colombia) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021); 513,900 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2022)

• Egypt

  refugees (country of origin): 70,022 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (mid-year 2021); 144,683 (Syria), 52,446 (Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 20,970 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 21,105 (Eritrea) (refugees and asylum seekers), 15,585 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 10,025 (Yemen) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,815 (Iraq) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,802 (Somalia) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 7 (mid-year 2021)

• El Salvador

  IDPs: 71,500 (2021)

• Estonia

  refugees (country of origin): 64,593 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 71,873 (mid-year 2021); note - following independence in 1991, automatic citizenship was restricted to those who were Estonian citizens prior to the 1940 Soviet occupation and their descendants; thousands of ethnic Russians remained stateless when forced to choose between passing Estonian language and citizenship tests or applying for Russian citizenship; one reason for demurring on Estonian citizenship was to retain the right of visa-free travel to Russia; stateless residents can vote in local elections but not general elections; stateless parents who have been lawful residents of Estonia for at least five years can apply for citizenship for their children before they turn 15 years old

• Ethiopia

  refugees (country of origin): 408,541 (South Sudan), 251,593 (Somalia), 162,011 (Eritrea), 48,445 (Sudan) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 2.72 million (includes conflict- and climate-induced IDPs, excluding unverified estimates from the Amhara region; border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000; ethnic clashes; and ongoing fighting between the Ethiopian military and separatist rebel groups in the Somali and Oromia regions; natural disasters; intercommunal violence; most IDPs live in Sumale state) (2022)

• Finland

  refugees (country of origin): 9,053 (Iraq) (mid-year 2021); 47,067 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 3,416 (mid-year 2021)

• France

  refugees (country of origin): 37,744 (Afghanistan), 23,980 (Sri Lanka), 23,510 (Syria), 21,070 (Sudan), 19,007 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 16,995 (Russia), 15,090 (Guinea), 14,296 (Serbia and Kosovo), 13,180 (Turkey), 10,849 (Cambodia), 9,328 (Iraq) 8,519 (China), 8,338 (Cote d'Ivoire), 8,218 (Eritrea), 7,628 (Vietnam), 6,947 (Bangladesh), 6,649 (Somalia), 6,642 (Albania), 6,371 (Laos), 6,074 (Mauritania), 5,908 (Mali) (mid-year 2021); 118,994 (Ukraine) (as of 31 October 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 2,094 (mid-year 2021)

• Gaza Strip

  refugees (country of origin): 1,476,706 (Palestinian refugees) (2020)
  
  IDPs: 131,000 (includes persons displaced within the Gaza Strip due to the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since June 2014 and other Palestinian IDPs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank who fled as long ago as 1967, although confirmed cumulative data do not go back beyond 2006) (2020); note - data represent Gaza Strip and West Bank

• Georgia

  refugees (country of origin): 25,204 (Ukraine) (as of 15 November 2022)
  
  IDPs: 305,000 (displaced in the 1990s as a result of armed conflict in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; displaced in 2008 by fighting between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 534 (mid-year 2021)

• Germany

  refugees (country of origin): 616,325 (Syria), 152,677 (Afghanistan), 147,400 (Iraq), 62,152 (Eritrea), 45,704 (Iran), 34,465 (Turkey), 29,137 (Somalia), 9,329 (Russia), 9,323 (Nigeria), 8,600 (Pakistan), 7,503 (Serbia and Kosovo), 6,057 (Ethiopia) (mid-year 2021); 1,021,667 (Ukraine) (as of 22 November 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 26,980 (mid-year 2021)

• Greece

  refugees (country of origin): 38,496 (Syria), 25,188 (Afghanistan), 12,657 (Iraq), 5,002 (West Bank and Gaza) (mid-year 2021); 20,955 (Ukraine) (as of 6 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 5,552 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 1,229,532 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-December 2022); as of the end of February 2022, Greece hosted an estimated 161,419 refugees and asylum seekers

• Guatemala

  IDPs: 243,000 (more than three decades of internal conflict that ended in 1996 displaced mainly the indigenous Maya population and rural peasants; ongoing drug cartel and gang violence) (2021)

• Guinea-Bissau

  refugees (country of origin): 7,757 (Senegal) (2022)

• Guyana

  refugees (country of origin): 24,500 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2021)

• Haiti

  IDPs: 17,000 (violence among armed gangs in the metropolitan area os Port-au-Prince) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 2,992 (2018); note - individuals without a nationality who were born in the Dominican Republic prior to January 2010

• Honduras

  IDPs: 247,000 (violence, extortion, threats, forced recruitment by urban gangs between 2004 and 2018) (2021)

• Hungary

  refugees (country of origin): 32,850 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 130 (mid-year 2021)

• Iceland

  stateless persons: 73 (mid-year 2021)

• India

  refugees (country of origin): 92,885 (Sri Lanka), 73,407 (Tibet/China), 20,325 (Burma), 8,537 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: 506,000 (armed conflict and intercommunal violence) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 19,677 (mid-year 2021)

• Indonesia

  refugees (country of origin): 5,792 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: 73,000 (inter-communal, inter-faith, and separatist violence between 1998 and 2004 in Aceh and Papua; religious attacks and land conflicts in 2007 and 2013; most IDPs in Aceh, Maluku, East Nusa Tengarra) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 668 (mid-year 2021)

• Iran

  refugees (country of origin): 2.6 million undocumented Afghans, 780,000 Afghan refugee card holders, 20,000 Iraqi refugee card holders (2020)
  
  stateless persons: 34 (mid-year 2021)

• Iraq

  refugees (country of origin): 15,272 (Turkey), 7,881 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (mid-year 2021); 263,087 (Syria) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 1,184,818 (displacement in central and northern Iraq since January 2014) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 47,253 (mid-year 2021); note - in the 1970s and 1980s under SADDAM Husayn's regime, thousands of Iraq's Faili Kurds, followers of Shia Islam, were stripped of their Iraqi citizenship, had their property seized by the government, and many were deported; some Faili Kurds had their citizenship reinstated under the 2006 Iraqi Nationality Law, but others lack the documentation to prove their Iraqi origins; some Palestinian refugees persecuted by the SADDAM regime remain stateless

• Ireland

  refugees (country of origin): 58,511 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 107 (mid-year 2021)

• Israel

  refugees (country of origin): 12,181 (Eritrea), 5,061 (Ukraine) (2019)
  
  stateless persons: 42 (mid-year 2021)

• Italy

  refugees (country of origin): 19,441 (Nigeria), 15,337 (Pakistan), 12,962 (Afghanistan), 10,609 (Mali), 7,901 (Somalia), 5,845 (Gambia), 5,079 (Iraq) (mid-year 2021); 173,231 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 3,000 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 689,298 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-December 2022)

• Japan

  stateless persons: 707 (mid-year 2021)

• Jordan

  refugees (country of origin): 2,307,011 (Palestinian refugees) (2020); 66,665 (Iraq), 12,866 (Yemen), 6,013 Sudan (2021); 669,483 (Syria) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 63 (mid-year 2021)

• Kazakhstan

  stateless persons: 7,915 (mid-year 2021)

• Kenya

  refugees (country of origin): 279,625 (Somalia), 151,087 (South Sudan), 52,312 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 21,066 (Ethiopia), 7,697 (Burundi), 5,022 (Sudan) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 190,000 (election-related violence, intercommunal violence, resource conflicts, al-Shabaab attacks in 2017 and 2018) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 16,820 (mid-year 2021); note - the stateless population consists of Nubians, Kenyan Somalis, and coastal Arabs; the Nubians are descendants of Sudanese soldiers recruited by the British to fight for them in East Africa more than a century ago; Nubians did not receive Kenyan citizenship when the country became independent in 1963; only recently have Nubians become a formally recognized tribe and had less trouble obtaining national IDs; Galjeel and other Somalis who have lived in Kenya for decades are included with more recent Somali refugees and denied ID cards

• Korea, North

  IDPs: undetermined (2021)

• Korea, South

  stateless persons: 204 (mid-year 2021)

• Kosovo

  IDPs: 16,000 (primarily ethnic Serbs displaced during the 1998-1999 war fearing reprisals from the majority ethnic-Albanian population; a smaller number of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians fled their homes in 2004 as a result of violence) (2021)
  
  note: 8,372 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2022)

• Kuwait

  stateless persons: 92,020 (mid-year 2021); note - Kuwait's 1959 Nationality Law defined citizens as persons who settled in the country before 1920 and who had maintained normal residence since then; one-third of the population, descendants of Bedouin tribes, missed the window of opportunity to register for nationality rights after Kuwait became independent in 1961 and were classified as bidun (meaning "without"); since the 1980s Kuwait's bidun have progressively lost their rights, including opportunities for employment and education, amid official claims that they are nationals of other countries who have destroyed their identification documents in hopes of gaining Kuwaiti citizenship; Kuwaiti authorities have delayed processing citizenship applications and labeled biduns as "illegal residents," denying them access to civil documentation, such as birth and marriage certificates

• Kyrgyzstan

  stateless persons: 16 (mid-year 2021)

• Latvia

  refugees (country of origin): 34,792 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 209,168 (mid-year 2021); note - individuals who were Latvian citizens prior to the 1940 Soviet occupation and their descendants were recognized as Latvian citizens when the country's independence was restored in 1991; citizens of the former Soviet Union residing in Latvia who have neither Latvian nor other citizenship are considered non-citizens (officially there is no statelessness in Latvia) and are entitled to non-citizen passports; children born after Latvian independence to stateless parents are entitled to Latvian citizenship upon their parents' request; non-citizens cannot vote or hold certain government jobs and are exempt from military service but can travel visa-free in the EU under the Schengen accord like Latvian citizens; non-citizens can obtain naturalization if they have been permanent residents of Latvia for at least five years, pass tests in Latvian language and history, and know the words of the Latvian national anthem

• Lebanon

  refugees (country of origin): 479,537 (Palestinian refugees) (2020); 825,081 (Syria) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 7,000 (2020)
  
  stateless persons: undetermined (2016); note - tens of thousands of persons are stateless in Lebanon, including many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Syrian Kurds denaturalized in Syria in 1962, children born to Lebanese women married to foreign or stateless men; most babies born to Syrian refugees, and Lebanese children whose births are unregistered

• Libya

  refugees (country of origin): 18,322 (Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 15,325 (Syria) (refugees and asylum seekers), 5,004 (Eritrea) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 159,996 (conflict between pro-QADHAFI and anti-QADHAFI forces in 2011; post-QADHAFI tribal clashes 2014) (2022)

• Lithuania

  refugees (country of origin): 72,051 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 2,721 (mid-year 2021)

• Luxembourg

  refugees (country of origin): 6,756 (Ukraine) (as of 25 October 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 194 (mid-year 2021)

• Malawi

  refugees (country of origin): 34,643 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 12,959 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers), 7,738 (Rwanda) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)

• Malaysia

  refugees (country of origin): 120,126 (Burma) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: 112,003 (mid-year 2021); note - Malaysia's stateless population consists of Rohingya refugees from Burma, ethnic Indians, and the children of Filipino and Indonesian illegal migrants; Burma stripped the Rohingya of their nationality in 1982; Filipino and Indonesian children who have not been registered for birth certificates by their parents or who received birth certificates stamped "foreigner" are not eligible to attend government schools; these children are vulnerable to statelessness should they not be able to apply to their parents' country of origin for passports

• Mali

  refugees (country of origin): 24,519 (Burkina Faso) (refugees and asylum seekers), 15,229 (Niger) (refugees and asylum seekers), 14,950 (Mauritania) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 422,620 (Tuareg rebellion since 2012) (2022)

• Malta

  stateless persons: 11 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 8,556 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals by sea (January 2015-November 2022)

• Mauritania

  refugees (country of origin): 26,001 (Sahrawis) (mid-year 2021); 97,127 (Mali) (2022)

• Mexico

  refugees (country of origin): 22,254 (Honduras), 10,662 (El Salvador) (mid-year 2021); 82,976 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)
  
  IDPs: 379,000 (government's quashing of Zapatista uprising in 1994 in eastern Chiapas Region; drug cartel violence and government's military response since 2007; violence between and within indigenous groups) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 13 (mid-year 2021)

• Moldova

  refugees (country of origin): 99,524 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 3,372 (mid-year 2021)

• Mongolia

  stateless persons: 17 (mid-year 2021)

• Montenegro

  refugees (country of origin): 31,665 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 458 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 28,589 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-December 2022)

• Mozambique

  refugees (country of origin): 10,968 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 8,589 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 946,508 (violence between the government and an opposition group, violence associated with extremists groups in 2018, political violence 2019) (2022)

• Namibia

  refugees (country of origin): 6,096 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)

• Nauru

  stateless persons: 133 (mid-year 2021)

• Nepal

  refugees (country of origin): 12,540 (Tibet/China), 6,365 (Bhutan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: undetermined (mid-year 2021)

• Netherlands

  refugees (country of origin): 37,792 (Syria), 14,787 (Eritrea), 8,368 (Somalia), 6,636 (Iraq), 5,346 (Iran) (mid-year 2021); 79,250 (Ukraine) (as of 30 September 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 2,087 (mid-year 2021)

• Niger

  refugees (country of origin): 187,130 (Nigeria), 65,621 (Mali) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 376,809 (includes the regions of Diffa, Tillaberi, and Tahoua; unknown how many of the 11,000 people displaced by clashes between government forces and the Tuareg militant group, Niger Movement for Justice, in 2007 are still displaced; inter-communal violence; Boko Haram attacks in southern Niger, 2015) (2022)

• Nigeria

  refugees (country of origin): 87,054 (Cameroon) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 3,030,544 (northeast Nigeria; Boko Haram attacks and counterinsurgency efforts in northern Nigeria; communal violence between Christians and Muslims in the middle belt region, political violence; flooding; forced evictions; cattle rustling; competition for resources) (2022)

• North Macedonia

  refugees (country of origin): 6,430 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 553 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 549,217 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2022)

• Norway

  refugees (country of origin): 15,542 (Syria), 11,965 (Eritrea) (mid-year 2021); 35,321 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 4,154 (mid-year 2021)

• Oman

  refugees (country of origin): 5,000 (Yemen) (2017)

• Pakistan

  refugees (country of origin): 2.62-2.88 million (1.28 million registered, 1.34-1.6  million undocumented or otherwise categorized) (Afghanistan) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 104,000 (primarily those who remain displaced by counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations and violent conflict between armed non-state groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber-Paktunkwa Province; more than 1 million displaced in northern Waziristan in 2014; individuals also have been displaced by repeated monsoon floods) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 47 (mid-year 2021)

• Panama

  refugees (country of origin): 80,021 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)

• Papua New Guinea

  refugees (country of origin): 11,601 (Indonesia) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: 24,000 (natural disasters, tribal conflict, inter-communal violence, development projects) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 9 (mid-year 2021)

• Paraguay

  refugees (country of origin): 5,900 (Venezuela) (2022)

• Peru

  refugees (country of origin): 1,286,434 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)
  
  IDPs: 60,000 (civil war from 1980-2000; most IDPs are indigenous peasants in Andean and Amazonian regions; as of 2011, no new information on the situation of these IDPs) (2021)

• Philippines

  IDPs: 108,000 (government troops fighting the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the New People's Army; clan feuds; armed attacks, political violence, and communal tensions in Mindanao) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 392 (mid-year 2021); note - stateless persons are descendants of Indonesian migrants

• Poland

  refugees (country of origin): 9,870 (Russia) (2019); 1,544,074 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 1,389 (mid-year 2021)

• Portugal

  refugees (country of origin): 56,236 (Ukraine) (as of 20 October 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 45 (mid-year 2021)

• Qatar

  stateless persons: 1,200 (mid-year 2021)

• Romania

  refugees (country of origin): 103,167 (Ukraine) (as of 18 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 314 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 11,961 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2022)

• Russia

  refugees (country of origin): 2,852,395 (Ukraine) (as of 3 October 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 56,960 (mid-year 2021); note - Russia's stateless population consists of Roma, Meskhetian Turks, and ex-Soviet citizens from the former republics; between 2003 and 2010 more than 600,000 stateless people were naturalized; most Meskhetian Turks, followers of Islam with origins in Georgia, fled or were evacuated from Uzbekistan after a 1989 pogrom and have lived in Russia for more than the required five-year residency period; they continue to be denied registration for citizenship and basic rights by local Krasnodar Krai authorities on the grounds that they are temporary illegal migrants

• Rwanda

  refugees (country of origin): 76,465 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 48,449 (Burundi) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 9,500 (mid-year 2021)

• Saudi Arabia

  stateless persons: 70,000 (mid-year 2021); note - thousands of biduns (stateless Arabs) are descendants of nomadic tribes who were not officially registered when national borders were established, while others migrated to Saudi Arabia in search of jobs; some have temporary identification cards that must be renewed every five years, but their rights remain restricted; most Palestinians have only legal resident status; some naturalized Yemenis were made stateless after being stripped of their passports when Yemen backed Iraq in its invasion of Kuwait in 1990; Saudi women cannot pass their citizenship on to their children, so if they marry a non-national, their children risk statelessness

• Senegal

  refugees (country of origin): 11,490 (Mauritania) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 8,400 (2021)

• Serbia

  refugees (country of origin): 17,336 (Croatia), 7,997 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) (mid-year 2021); 22,716 (Ukraine) (includes Ukrainian refugees in Kosovo; as of 22 November 2022)
  
  IDPs: 196,995 (most are Kosovar Serbs, some are Roma, Ashkalis, and Egyptian (RAE); some RAE IDPs are unregistered) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 2,113 (includes stateless persons in Kosovo) (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 918,319 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2022); Serbia is predominantly a transit country and hosts an estimated 6,313 migrants and asylum seekers as of June 2022

• Sierra Leone

  IDPs: 5,500 (displacement caused by post-electoral violence in 2018 and clashes in the Pujehun region in 2019) (2021)

• Singapore

  stateless persons: 1,109 (mid-year 2021)

• Slovakia

  refugees (country of origin): 104,140 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 1,532 (mid-year 2021)

• Slovenia

  refugees (country of origin): 8,821 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 10 (2020)
  
  note:  557,468 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2022)

• Somalia

  refugees (country of origin): 9,208 (Yemen) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 2.968 million (civil war since 1988, clan-based competition for resources; famine; insecurity because of fighting between al-Shabaab and the Transitional Federal Government's allied forces) (2022)

• South Africa

  refugees (country of origin): 23,054 (Somalia), 15,629 (Ethiopia) (mid-year 2021); 56,080 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 5,000 (2020)

• South Sudan

  refugees (country of origin): 309,849 (Sudan), 19,452 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 2.23 million (alleged coup attempt and ethnic conflict beginning in December 2013; information is lacking on those displaced in earlier years by: fighting in Abyei between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in May 2011; clashes between the SPLA and dissident militia groups in South Sudan; inter-ethnic conflicts over resources and cattle; attacks from the Lord's Resistance Army; floods and drought) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 10,000 (mid-year 2021)

• Spain

  refugees (country of origin): 14,823 (Syria) (mid-year 2021); 418,200 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2021); 158,789 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 692 (mid-year 2021)
  
  note: 277,496 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals, including Canary Islands (January 2015-December 2022)

• Sri Lanka

  IDPs: 12,000 (civil war; more than half displaced prior to 2008; many of the more than 480,000 IDPs registered as returnees have not reached durable solutions) (2021)

• Sudan

  refugees (country of origin): 807,411 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 133,918 (Eritrea) (refugees and asylum seekers), 93,478 (Syria) (refugees and asylum seekers), 71,281 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 24,369 (Central African Republic) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 3.71 million (civil war 1983-2005; ongoing conflict in Darfur region; government and rebel fighting along South Sudan border; inter-tribal clashes) (2022)

• Sweden

  refugees (country of origin): 114,995 (Syria), 28,744 (Afghanistan), 26,911 (Eritrea), 11,574 (Somalia), 11,153 (Iraq), 7,516 (Iran) (2020); 49,789 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 50,098 (mid-year 2021); note - the majority of stateless people are from the Middle East and Somalia

• Switzerland

  refugees (country of origin): 38,219 (Eritrea), 20,043 (Syria), 14,649 (Afghanistan), 6,069 (Sri Lanka), 6,197 (Turkey) (mid-year 2021); 71,342 (Ukraine) (as of 13 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 684 (mid-year 2021)

• Syria

  refugees (country of origin): 568,730 (Palestinian Refugees) (2020); 12,435 (Iraq) (mid-year 2021)
  
  IDPs: 6.75 million (ongoing civil war since 2011) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 160,000 (mid-year 2021); note - Syria's stateless population consists of Kurds and Palestinians; stateless persons are prevented from voting, owning land, holding certain jobs, receiving food subsidies or public healthcare, enrolling in public schools, or being legally married to Syrian citizens; in 1962, some 120,000 Syrian Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship, rendering them and their descendants stateless; in 2011, the Syrian Government granted citizenship to thousands of Syrian Kurds as a means of appeasement; however, resolving the question of statelessness is not a priority given Syria's ongoing civil war
  
  note: the ongoing civil war has resulted in more than 5.5 million registered Syrian refugees - dispersed mainly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey - as of November 2022

• Tajikistan

  refugees (country of origin): 6,775 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2021)
  
  stateless persons: 6,141 (mid-year 2021)

• Tanzania

  refugees (country of origin): 126,132 (Burundi), 80,860 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2022)

• Thailand

  refugees (country of origin): 91,349 (Burma) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 41,000 (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 554,103 (mid-year 2021) (estimate represents stateless persons registered with the Thai Government; actual number may be as high as 3.5 million); note - about half of Thailand's northern hill tribe people do not have citizenship and make up the bulk of Thailand's stateless population; most lack documentation showing they or one of their parents were born in Thailand; children born to Burmese refugees are not eligible for Burmese or Thai citizenship and are stateless; most Chao Lay, maritime nomadic peoples, who travel from island to island in the Andaman Sea west of Thailand are also stateless; stateless Rohingya refugees from Burma are considered illegal migrants by Thai authorities and are detained in inhumane conditions or expelled; stateless persons are denied access to voting, property, education, employment, healthcare, and driving
  
  note: Thai nationality was granted to more than 23,000 stateless persons between 2012 and 2016 and more than 18,000 between 2018 and 2021; in 2016, the Government of Thailand approved changes to its citizenship laws that could make 80,000 stateless persons eligible for citizenship, as part of its effort to achieve zero statelessness by 2024 (2021)

• Togo

  refugees (country of origin): 8,391 (Ghana) (2022)

• Trinidad and Tobago

  refugees (country of origin): 28,500 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)

• Turkey (Turkiye)

  refugees (country of origin): 3,561,883 (Syria) (2022); 46,739 (Ukraine) (as of 20 December 2022)
  
  IDPs: 1.099 million (displaced from 1984-2005 because of fighting between the Kurdish PKK and Turkish military; most IDPs are Kurds from eastern and southeastern provinces; no information available on persons displaced by development projects) (2021)
  
  stateless persons: 117 (2018)

• Turkmenistan

  stateless persons: 4,107 (mid-year 2021)

• Uganda

  refugees (country of origin): 845,711 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 452,891 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 61,482 (Somalia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 40,311 (Burundi), 26,700 (Eritrea), 23,154 (Rwanda), 5,307 (Ethiopia) (2022)

• Ukraine

  IDPs:

  1,461,700 (Russian-sponsored separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2021); 5.91 million (Russian invasion), according to the UN (as of 5 December 2022); note – the more recent invasion total may reflect some double counting, since it is impossible to determine how many of the recent IDPs may also include IDPs from the earlier Russian-sponsored violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine

  
  
  stateless persons: 35,875 (mid-year 2021); note - citizens of the former USSR who were permanently resident in Ukraine were granted citizenship upon Ukraine's independence in 1991, but some missed this window of opportunity; people arriving after 1991, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Koreans, people with expired Soviet passports, and people with no documents have difficulty acquiring Ukrainian citizenship; following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, thousands of Crimean Tatars and their descendants deported from Ukraine under the STALIN regime returned to their homeland, some being stateless and others holding the citizenship of Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics; a 1998 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Uzbekistan simplified the process of renouncing Uzbek citizenship and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship

• United Arab Emirates

  stateless persons: 5 (mid-year 2021)

• United Kingdom

  refugees (country of origin): 21,011 (Iran), 14,503 (Eritrea), 11,251 (Sudan), 11,412 (Syria), 9,469 (Afghanistan), 8,357 (Pakistan), 6,933 (Iraq), 5,200 (Sri Lanka) (2020); 150,600 (Ukraine) (as of 12 December 2022)
  
  stateless persons: 3,968 (mid-year 2021)

• United States

  refugees (country of origin): the US admitted 11,411 refugees during FY2021 including: 4,891 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 1,246 (Syria), 872 (Afghanistan), 803 (Ukraine), 772 (Burma), 513 (Sudan)
  
  stateless persons: 47 (mid-year 2021)

• Uruguay

  refugees (country of origin): 19,000 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2022)
  
  stateless persons: 5 (mid-year 2021)

• Uzbekistan

  stateless persons: 59,136 (mid-year 2021)

• Venezuela

  refugees (country of origin): 67,935 (Colombia) (2020)
  
  note: As of September 2022, host governments report more than 7.1 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide

• Vietnam

  stateless persons: 30,581 (mid-year 2021); note - Vietnam's stateless ethnic Chinese Cambodian population dates to the 1970s when thousands of Cambodians fled to Vietnam to escape the Khmer Rouge and were no longer recognized as Cambodian citizens; Vietnamese women who gave up their citizenship to marry foreign men have found themselves stateless after divorcing and returning home to Vietnam; the government addressed this problem in 2009, and Vietnamese women are beginning to reclaim their citizenship

• West Bank

  refugees (country of origin): 871,537 (Palestinian refugees) (2020)
  
  IDPs: 131,000 (includes persons displaced within the Gaza strip due to the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since June 2014 and other Palestinian IDPs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank who fled as long ago as 1967, although confirmed cumulative data do not go back beyond 2006) (2020); note - data represent Gaza Strip and West Bank

• World

  the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that as of year-end 2021 there were 89.3 million people forcibly displaced worldwide; this includes 53.2 million IDPs, 27.1 million refugees, 4.6 million asylum seekers, and 4.4 million Venezuelans displaced abroad; the UNHCR estimates there are currently more than 4.3 million stateless persons as of year-end 2021

• Yemen

  refugees (country of origin): 69,671 (Somalia), 18,968 (Ethiopia) (2022)
  
  IDPs: 4,288,739 (conflict in Sa'ada Governorate; clashes between al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and government forces) (2022)

• Zambia

  refugees (country of origin): 60,236 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,948 (Burundi) (2022)

• Zimbabwe

  refugees (country of origin): 11,613 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,871 (Mozambique) (2022)