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Refugees and internally displaced persons
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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): 59,486 (Pakistan) (mid-year 2022)IDPs: 4.394 million (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to natural disasters and political instability) (2022)
Albania
refugees (country of origin): 7,495 (Ukraine) (as of 7 November 2023)stateless persons: 1,948 (2022)
note: 46,944 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2023)
Algeria
refugees (country of origin): more than 100,000 (Sahrawi, mostly living in Algerian-sponsored camps in the southwestern Algerian town of Tindouf); 7,345 (Syria) (mid-year 2022)Angola
refugees (country of origin): 22,969 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,272 (Guinea), 6,357 (Cote d'Ivoire), 5,725 (Mauritania) (2023)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): 27,929 (Azerbaijan) (mid-year 2022)IDPs: 8,400 (2022)
stateless persons: 816 (2022)
Aruba
refugees (country of origin): 17,000 (Venezuela) (2021)Australia
refugees (country of origin): 12,180 (Iran), 8,741 (Afghanistan), 5,042 (Pakistan) (mid-year 2022)stateless persons: 7,649 (2022)
Austria
refugees (country of origin): 68,700 (Syria), 43,725 (Afghanistan), 10,110 (Iraq), 8,684 (Somalia), 7,294 (Iran), 6,124 (Russia) (mid-year 2022); 81,870 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 3,219 (2022)
Azerbaijan
IDPs: 659,000 (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) (2022)stateless persons: 3,585 (2022)
Bangladesh
refugees (country of origin): 967,842 (Burma) (2023)IDPs: 427,000 (conflict, development, human rights violations, religious persecution, natural disasters) (2022)
stateless persons: 929,606 (2022)
Belarus
refugees (country of origin): 32,435 (Ukraine) (as of 1 August 2023)stateless persons: 5,626 (2022)
Belgium
refugees (country of origin): 20,086 (Syria), 7,049 (Afghanistan), 5,769 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 73,095 (Ukraine) (as of 22 August 2023)stateless persons: 1,190 (2022)
Bolivia
refugees (country of origin): 12,400 (Venezuela) (2022)Bosnia and Herzegovina
IDPs: 91,000 (Bosnian Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks displaced by inter-ethnic violence, human rights violations, and armed conflict during the 1992-95 war) (2022)stateless persons: 48 (2022)
note: 142,338 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
Brazil
refugees (country of origin): 449,678 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2023)IDPs: 5,600 (2022)
stateless persons: 12 (2022)
Brunei
stateless persons: 20,863 (2022); 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 landBulgaria
refugees (country of origin): 22,226 (Syria) (mid-year 2022); 51,975 (Ukraine) (as of 5 December 2023)stateless persons: 1,129 (2022)
note: 100,671 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-August 2023); Bulgaria is predominantly a transit country
Burma
IDPs: 1.975 million (government offensives against armed ethnic minority groups near its borders with China and Thailand, natural disasters, forced land evictions) (2023)stateless persons: 600,000 (2022); 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): 86,799 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 76,987 (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) (2023)
stateless persons: 767 (mid-year 2021)
Cabo Verde
stateless persons: 115 (2022)Cambodia
stateless persons: 75,000 (2022)Cameroon
refugees (country of origin): 353,701 (Central African Republic), 120,677 (Nigeria) (2023)IDPs: 1.066 million (2023) (includes far north, northwest, and southwest)
Canada
refugees (country of origin): 22,400 (Venezuela) (refugees and migrants) (2020); 5,254 (Iran) (mid-year 2021)stateless persons: 4,323 (2022)
Central African Republic
refugees (country of origin): 13,844 (Sudan) (refugees since 15 April 2023), 6,683 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (2023)IDPs: 490,868 (clashes between army and rebel groups since 2005; tensions between ethnic groups) (2023)
Chad
refugees (country of origin): 418,187 (Sudan) (includes refugees since 15 April 2023), 128,619 (Central African Republic), 26,692 (Cameroon), 21,178 (Nigeria) (2023)IDPs: 215,918 (majority are in the east) (2023)
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: 6,863,334 (conflict between government and illegal armed groups and drug traffickers since 1985) (2023)
stateless persons: 11 (2022)
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
refugees (country of origin): 211,963 (Central African Republic), 208,328 (Rwanda), 53,194 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 46,272 (Burundi) (2023)IDPs: 6.38 million (fighting between government forces and rebels since mid-1990s; conflict in Kasai region since 2016) (2023)
Congo, Republic of the
refugees (country of origin): 33,585 (Central African Republic), 28,396 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers)(2023)IDPs: 27,000 (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: 192 (2022)
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) (2022)stateless persons: 930,578 (2022); 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): 23,995 (Ukraine) (as of 1 December 2023)stateless persons: 2,889 (2022)
note: 843,010 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-September 2023)
Curacao
refugees (country of origin): 14,200 (Venezuela) (2021)Cyprus
refugees (country of origin): 10,869 (Syria) (mid-year 2022); 18,230 (Ukraine) (as of 12 November 2023)IDPs: 246,000 (both Turkish and Greek Cypriots; many displaced since 1974) (2022)
stateless persons: 74 (2022)
note: 55,098 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-August 2023)
Czechia
refugees (country of origin): 370,815 (Ukraine) (as of 26 November 2023)stateless persons: 1,625 (2022)
Denmark
refugees (country of origin): 19,424 (Syria), 5,885 (Eritrea) (mid-year 2022); 36,635 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 11,644 (2022)
Djibouti
refugees (country of origin): 13,434 (Somalia) (2023); 6,518 (Yemen) (mid-year 2022)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): 70,021 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (mid-year 2022); 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); 310,000 (Sudan) (refugees since 15 April 2023), 152,973 (Syria) (2023)stateless persons: 10 (2022)
El Salvador
IDPs: 52,000 (2022)Estonia
refugees (country of origin): 50,450 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 70,604 (2022); 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): 418,749 (South Sudan), 309,581 (Somalia), 167,391 (Eritrea), 25,463 (Sudan) (refugees since 15 April 2023) (2023)IDPs: 4.385 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) (2023)
Finland
refugees (country of origin): 9,175 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 61,520 (Ukraine) (as of 24 September 2023)stateless persons: 3,546 (2022)
France
refugees (country of origin): 55,681 (Afghanistan), 39,091 (Syria), 33,834 (Sri Lanka), 33,148 (Russia), 31,935 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 24,223 (Sudan), 21,225 (Guinea), 18,008 (Serbia and Kosovo), 17,032 (Turkey), 13,974 (Iraq), 12,286 (Cote d'Ivoire), 11,489 (Eritrea), 11,012 (Cambodia), 10,543 (China), 10,236 (Albania), 10,210 (Somalia), 8,858 (Bangladesh), 8,124 (Mauritania), 8,101 (Mali), 7,991 (Vietnam), 6,913 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), 6,910 (Haiti), 6,808 (Angola), 6,498 (Laos), 6,417 (Armenia), 6,111 (Nigeria), 5,896 (Georgia) (mid-year 2022); 118,994 (Ukraine) (as of 31 October 2022)stateless persons: 3,633 (2022)
Gambia, The
IDPs: 5,600 (2022)Gaza Strip
refugees (country of origin): 1.6 million (Palestinian refugees) (2022)IDPs: 1.9 million (as of 18 December 2023, since HAMAS's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023)
1.6 million (includes persons displaced within the Gaza Strip due to the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between June 2014 and 7 October 2023 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) (2022)
Georgia
refugees (country of origin): 27,000 (Ukraine) (as of 4 October 2023)IDPs: 308,000 (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) (2022)
stateless persons: 530 (2022)
Germany
refugees (country of origin): 664,238 (Syria), 183,631 (Afghanistan), 151,254 (Iraq), 64,496 (Eritrea), 47,658 (Iran), 38,755 (Turkey), 32,155 (Somalia), 13,334 (Russia), 12,155 (Nigeria), 9,250 (Pakistan), 6,257 (Serbia and Kosovo), 6,912 (Ethiopia), 5,532 (Azerbaijan) (mid-year 2022); 1,123,640 (Ukraine) (as of 24 November 2023)stateless persons: 28,941 (2022)
Greece
refugees (country of origin): 41,594 (Syria), 33,549 (Afghanistan), 14,228 (Iraq), 6,366 (West Bank and Gaza) (mid-year 2022); 25,050 (Ukraine) (as of 30 June 2023)stateless persons: 4,488 (2022)
note: 1,272,420 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
Guatemala
IDPs: 242,000 (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) (2022)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: 171,000 (violence among armed gangs in the metropolitan area os Port-au-Prince) (2022)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) (2023)Hungary
refugees (country of origin): 61,445 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 130 (2022)
Iceland
stateless persons: 68 (2022)India
refugees (country of origin): 92,131 (Sri Lanka), 72,315 (Tibet/China), 10,064 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2022); 78,731 (Burma) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 631,000 (armed conflict and intercommunal violence) (2022)
stateless persons: 20,330 (2022)
Indonesia
refugees (country of origin): 5,684 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2022)IDPs: 72,000 (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) (2022)
stateless persons: 866 (2022)
Iran
refugees (country of origin): 500,000 undocumented Afghans, 750,000 Afghan refugee card holders, 12,000 Iraqi refugee card holders (2022)stateless persons: 34 (mid-year 2021)
Iraq
refugees (country of origin): 7,864 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (mid-year 2022); 271,732 (Syria), 8,575 (Iran), 8,091 (Turkey) (2023)IDPs: 1.142 million (displacement in central and northern Iraq since January 2014) (2023)
stateless persons: 47,253 (2022); 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): 101,530 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 7 (2022)
Israel
refugees (country of origin): 12,181 (Eritrea), 5,061 (Ukraine) (2019)stateless persons: 35 (2022)
Italy
refugees (country of origin): 21,441 (Nigeria), 17,706 (Afghanistan), 17,619 (Pakistan), 11,193 (Mali), 8,405 (Somalia), 6,324 (Gambia), 5,768 (Bangladesh), 5,463 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 168,725 (Ukraine) (as of 10 November 2023)stateless persons: 3,000 (2022)
note: 840,958 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
Japan
stateless persons: 531 (2022)Jordan
refugees (country of origin): 2.4 million (Palestinian refugees) (2020); 12,866 (Yemen), 6,013 Sudan (2021); 33,951 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 651,329 (Syria) (2023)stateless persons: 64 (2022)
Kazakhstan
stateless persons: 7,558 (2022)Kenya
refugees (country of origin): 290,635 (Somalia), 170,292 (South Sudan), 58,824 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 21,847 (Ethiopia), 8,392 (Burundi), 5,756 (Sudan) (2023)IDPs: 30,000 (election-related violence, intercommunal violence, resource conflicts, al-Shabaab attacks in 2017 and 2018) (2022)
stateless persons: 16,779 (2022); 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: 202 (2022)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) (2022)note: 9,011 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-August 2023)
Kuwait
stateless persons: 92,000 (2022); 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 certificatesKyrgyzstan
stateless persons: 482 (2022)Latvia
refugees (country of origin): 32,470 (Ukraine) (as of 15 August 2023)stateless persons: 195,354 (2022); 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): 487,000 (Palestinian refugees) (2022); 789,842 (Syria) (2023)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): 24,887 (Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 11,623 (Syria) (refugees and asylum seekers), 8,302 (Eritrea) (2023)IDPs: 125,802 (conflict between pro-QADHAFI and anti-QADHAFI forces in 2011; post-QADHAFI tribal clashes 2014) (2023)
Lithuania
refugees (country of origin): 51,810 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 2,720 (2022)
Luxembourg
refugees (country of origin): 6,065 (Ukraine) (as of 11 August 2023)stateless persons: 174 (2022)
Malawi
refugees (country of origin): 34,030 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) 11,502 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,594 (Rwanda) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)Malaysia
refugees (country of origin): 157,731 (Burma) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)stateless persons: 113,930 (2022); 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): 29,138 (Burkina Faso) (refugees and asylum seekers), 20,617 (Niger) (refugees and asylum seekers), 14,956 (Mauritania) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 375,539 (Tuareg rebellion since 2012) (2023)
Malta
refugees (country of origin): 5,890 (Ukraine) (as of 16 July 2023)stateless persons: 11 (2022)
note: 8,556 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals by sea (January 2015-November 2022)
Mauritania
refugees (country of origin): 26,000 (Sahrawis) (2021); 104,080 (Mali) (2023)Mexico
refugees (country of origin): 35,755 (Honduras), 13,531 (El Salvador) (mid-year 2022); 91,359 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2022)IDPs: 386,000 (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) (2022)
stateless persons: 13 (2022)
Moldova
refugees (country of origin): 112,810 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 1,701 (2022)
Mongolia
stateless persons: 17 (2022)Montenegro
refugees (country of origin): 63,790 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 468 (2022)
note: 33,825 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
Morocco
refugees (country of origin): 5,250 (Syria) (mid-year 2022)Mozambique
refugees (country of origin): 12,810 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 10,655 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 850,599 (north Mozambique, violence between the government and an opposition group, violence associated with extremists groups in 2018, political violence 2019) (2023)
Namibia
refugees (country of origin): 6,247 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)Nauru
stateless persons: 140 (2022)Nepal
refugees (country of origin): 12,540 (Tibet/China), 6,365 (Bhutan) (mid-year 2022)stateless persons: undetermined (mid-year 2021)
Netherlands
refugees (country of origin): 53,496 (Syria), 19,204 (Eritrea), 7,106 (Turkey), 5,593 (Iran), 5,152 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 136,470 (Ukraine) (as of 30 September 2023)stateless persons: 4,570 (2022)
New Zealand
stateless persons: 5 (2022)Niger
refugees (country of origin): 221,810 (Nigeria), 67,191 (Mali) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 335,277 (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) (2023)
Nigeria
refugees (country of origin): 89,045 (Cameroon) (2023)IDPs: 3.15 million (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) (2023)
North Macedonia
refugees (country of origin): 18,680 (Ukraine) (as of 14 November 2023)stateless persons: 521 (2022)
note: 562,235 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2023)
Norway
refugees (country of origin): 15,901 (Syria), 10,883 (Eritrea) (mid-year 2022); 61,005 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 3,901 (2022)
Oman
refugees (country of origin): 5,000 (Yemen) (2017)Pakistan
refugees (country of origin): 2.64-2.9 million (1.3 million registered, 1.34-1.6 million undocumented or otherwise categorized) (Afghanistan) (2023)IDPs: 21,000 (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) (2022)
stateless persons: 48 (2022)
Panama
refugees (country of origin): 147,424 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2023)Papua New Guinea
refugees (country of origin): 11,432 (Indonesia) (mid-year 2022)IDPs: 91,000 (tribal conflict, inter-communal violence) (2022)
stateless persons: 15 (2022)
Paraguay
refugees (country of origin): 5,900 (Venezuela) (2022)Peru
refugees (country of origin): 1,518,102 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2023)IDPs: 73,000 (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) (2022)
Philippines
IDPs: 102,000 (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) (2022)stateless persons: 261 (2022); note - stateless persons are descendants of Indonesian migrants
Poland
refugees (country of origin): 954,600 (Ukraine) (as of 20 November 2023)stateless persons: 1,435 (2022)
Portugal
refugees (country of origin): 58,275 (Ukraine) (as of 4 June 2023)stateless persons: 55 (2022)
Qatar
stateless persons: 1,200 (2022)Romania
refugees (country of origin): 83,405 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 297 (2022)
note: 15,377 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
Russia
refugees (country of origin): 1,244,180 (Ukraine) (as of 30 June 2023)IDPs: 7,500 (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): 79,606 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 48,300 (Burundi) (2023)stateless persons: 9,500 (2022)
Saudi Arabia
stateless persons: 70,000 (2022); 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 statelessnessSerbia
refugees (country of origin): 17,334 (Croatia), 7,997 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) (mid-year 2022)IDPs: 196,066 (most are Kosovar Serbs, some are Roma, Ashkalis, and Egyptian (RAE); some RAE IDPs are unregistered) (2022)
stateless persons: 2,594 (includes stateless persons in Kosovo) (2022)
note: 1,031,608 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-November 2023)
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 (2022)Slovakia
refugees (country of origin): 112,350 (Ukraine) (as of 12 November 2023)stateless persons: 2,940 (2022)
Slovenia
refugees (country of origin): 10,515 (Ukraine) (as of 4 December 2023)stateless persons: 10 (2020)
note: 6174,747 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-October 2023)
Somalia
refugees (country of origin): 23,364 (Ethiopia), 9,969 (Yemen) (2023)IDPs: 3.864 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): 22,388 (Somalia), 15,240 (Ethiopia) (mid-year 2022); 42,080 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 5,000 (2020)
South Sudan
refugees (country of origin): 254,953 (Sudan) (refugees since 15 April 2023), 13,114 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2023)IDPs: 2.258 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) (2023)
stateless persons: 10,000 (2022)
Spain
refugees (country of origin): 14,994 (Syria) (mid-year 2022); 438,400 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2022); 185,870 (Ukraine) (as of 3 December 2023)stateless persons: 6,489 (2022)
note: 325,212 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals, including Canary Islands (January 2015-November 2023)
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) (2022)stateless persons: 35 (2022)
Sudan
refugees (country of origin): 682,519 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 137,402 (Eritrea) (refugees and asylum seekers), 93,477 (Syria) (refugees and asylum seekers), 72,334 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 18,597 (Central African Republic) (2023)IDPs: 5.42 million (armed conflict between rival factions of the military government of Sudan since 15 April 2023) (2023); note - includes some non-Sudanese nationals
Sweden
refugees (country of origin): 113,213 (Syria), 26,857 (Afghanistan), 25,849 (Eritrea), 10,464 (Iraq), 9,315 (Somalia), 7,146 (Iran) (mid-year 2022); 41,520 (Ukraine) (as of 30 November 2023)stateless persons: 46,515 (2022); note - the majority of stateless people are from the Middle East and Somalia
Switzerland
refugees (country of origin): 14,726 (Eritrea), 11,441 (Afghanistan), 8,039 (Syria), (mid-year 2022); 66,525 (Ukraine) (as of 1 December 2023)stateless persons: 891 (2022)
Syria
refugees (country of origin): 580,000 (Palestinian Refugees) (2022); 11,121 (Iraq) (2023)IDPs: 6.865 million (ongoing civil war since 2011) (2022)
stateless persons: 160,000 (2022); 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 nearly 5.2 million registered Syrian refugees - dispersed mainly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey - as of October 2023
Tajikistan
refugees (country of origin): 6,775 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2021)stateless persons: 4,898 (2022)
Tanzania
refugees (country of origin): 111,708 (Burundi), 89,017 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2023)Thailand
refugees (country of origin): 91,339 (Burma) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)IDPs: 41,000 (2022)
stateless persons: 566,900 (2022) (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): 9,846 (Burkina Faso), 8,436 (Ghana) (2023)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): 10,244 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 3,274,059 (Syria), 42,720 (Ukraine) (as of 23 November 2023) (2023)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) (2022)
stateless persons: 117 (2018)
Turkmenistan
stateless persons: 4,463 (2022)Uganda
refugees (country of origin): 917,232 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 502,487 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 41,420 (Somalia), 39,330 (Burundi), 34,368 (Eritrea), 23,388 (Rwanda), 8,936 (Ethiopia), 5,776 (Sudan) (2023)stateless persons: 67,000 (2022)
Ukraine
IDPs:1,461,700 (Russian-sponsored separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2021); 3.67 million (2023) (since Russian invasion that started in February 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: 36,459 (2022); 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): 21,904 (Iran), 15,615 (Eritrea), 11,371 (Sudan), 12,155 (Syria), 10,259 (Afghanistan), 8,009 (Pakistan), 7,699 (Iraq) (mid-year 2022); 248,260 (Ukraine) (as of 21 November 2023)stateless persons: 5,483 (2022)
United States
refugees (country of origin): the US admitted 25,465 refugees during FY2022, including: 7,810 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 4,556 (Syria), 2,156 (Burma), 1,669 (Sudan), 1,618 (Afghanistan), 1,610 (Ukraine)stateless persons: 47 (2022)
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 (2022)
Uzbekistan
refugees (country of origin): 13,031 (Afghanistan) (mid-year 2022)stateless persons: 31,829 (2022)
Venezuela
refugees (country of origin): 39,185 (Colombia) (mid-year 2022)note: As of May 2023, approximately 7.32 Venezuelan refugees and migrants reside worldwide with 83.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean
Vietnam
stateless persons: 35,475 (2022); 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 citizenshipWest Bank
refugees (country of origin): 901,000 (Palestinian refugees) (2022)IDPs: 12,000 (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) (2022); note - data represent Gaza Strip and West Bank
World
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that as of mid-year 2023 there were 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide; this includes 62.5 million IDPs, 36.4 million refugees, 6.1 million asylum seekers, 5.3 million others in need of international protection; the UNHCR estimates there are currently more than 4.4 million stateless persons as of year-end 2022 (the true number is estimated to be significantly higher)Yemen
refugees (country of origin): 45,608 (Somalia), 17,812 (Ethiopia) (2023)IDPs: 4.523 million (conflict in Sa'ada Governorate; clashes between al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and government forces) (2022)