Refugee Numbers Remain Mostly Stable Throughout 2020

According to UN data, refugee crises have remained mostly stable in the pandemic year of 2020. At the end of the year, the organization put the number of Syrian refugees who have been displaced across the country's borders and have not been resettled at 6.8 million, only slightly up from 2019. While the number of such refugees from Afghanistan dipped slightly, an increase is expected as a result of the Taliban takeover of the country in the wake of the U.S. and NATO military missions ending.

The Venezuela refugee crisis had been growing majorly in 2019 but is no longer believed to surpass the crisis in Syria anytime soon. While the number of Syrian refugees and those in a refugee-like situation had risen incrementally since 2011, Venezuelan refugee numbers jumped up quickly starting in 2017, prompting fears that organizations in the region were unequipped to handle the situation much longer.

Brookings Institution, which analyzed the data, notes that compared to the Syrian crisis, the Venezuela refugee situation is severely underfunded, putting the lives of hundred thousands of people at risk because of the lack of food and medical assistance.