Venezuela leads world in number of refugees
Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido demonstrate with a Venezuelan national flag as they wait for his return in Caracas (2019). A new UN report says Venezuelans were the second-largest group worldwide to request asylum in 2024. File Photo by Marcelo Perez/UPI | License Photo
June 16 (UPI) -- Venezuela now leads the world in the number of refugees and people in need of international protection, according to the latest Global Trends report from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
A drop in Afghan refugee numbers and the return of nearly 2 million Syrians after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad made Venezuela the country with the highest combined total of refugees and people in need of international protection in 2024 -- 370,200 and 5.9 million, respectively. The total marked a 2% increase from the previous year.
Most Venezuelans seeking refuge remain in Latin America. Colombia hosts the largest number, with 2.8 million -- making it the third-largest refugee-hosting country in the world. It is followed by Peru (1.1 million), Brazil (605,700), Chile (523,800) and Ecuador (441,600).
The UNHCR reported that Venezuelans were the second-largest group worldwide to request asylum in 2024, with 268,100 new claims.
The United States received 729,100 asylum applications in the first half of 2024, the most recent period for which data is available. Most came from Latin America and the Caribbean, led by Venezuelans (116,700), Colombians (79,300), Mexicans (54,000) and Haitians (46,600).
The UNHCR report also ranked Venezuela as the world's third-largest source of people living in exile, behind Afghanistan and Syria and ahead of Ukraine. The number of displaced Venezuelans rose from 5.4 million in 2023 to 6.1 million in 2024.
The government of President Nicolás Maduro rejected the report, calling it "manipulated data that confirms the total degradation of this U.N. agency."
In a statement, the Venezuelan government said the UNHCR reports "have become a propaganda tool used to justify aggression, raise funds and attack sovereign nations like Venezuela."
By the end of 2024, an estimated 123.2 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, human rights violations, public disorder and other forms of violence -- an increase of more than 7 million people, or 6%, from the end of 2023.
While global displacement nearly doubled over the past decade, the growth rate slowed in the second half of 2024. By the end of April 2025, the total had declined by 1% to 122.1 million -- the first drop in more than a decade.
The UNHCR reports that 23 million displaced people are in the Americas, where the region is seeing "unprecedented mixed movements of refugees and migrants, often along deadly routes."
Still, the agency highlighted progress in adopting "solutions to ensure the protection, regularization and integration of displaced people."
The report cites Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador as countries "carrying out regularization programs for vulnerable refugees and migrants, ensuring documentation and access to services."
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