Report: 6 wealthiest countries hosting less than 9 percent of the world's refugees
A new Oxfam report finds that the world's six wealthiest countries host less than nine percent of the world's refugees.
The United States, China, Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom make up 56.6 percent of the global economy but house only 2.1 million refugees between them, or 8.9 percent of the world's refugees. About one-third of those refugees are living in Germany, with the rest split among the other five countries. Jordan, Turkey, Palestine, Pakistan, Lebanon, and South Africa account for less than two percent of the world's economy, yet host more than half of the world's refugees, about 12 million people.
"This is one of the greatest challenges of our time, yet poorer countries, and poorer people, are left to shoulder the responsibility," Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam GB, told The Guardian. "It is a complex crisis that requires a coordinated, global response with the richest countries doing their fair share by welcoming more refugees and doing more to help and protect them wherever they are." The UNHCR Global Trends 2015 report states that more than 65 million people, primarily from Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Burundi, have been driven from their homes due to war, human rights violations, and violence, with 40.8 million internally displaced. The countries with the most refugees are both neighboring Syria — Jordan has 2.8 million refugees, while Turkey has 2.75 million.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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