Spanish
Geneva.- Up to 21.9 million people, a figure that has multiplied by 13 since the beginning of the century, are forcibly displaced in the Americas due to crises, internal conflicts and violence, recalls the UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) on the world day dedicated to the group.
The figure includes 1.2 million refugees in other countries, 4.7 million asylum seekers, 9.5 million internally displaced persons and other people in similar situations, whom UNHCR remembers on World Refugee Day, a day that began to be celebrated in Africa in 1975 and was adopted globally in 2001.Read more: Haiti rejects OAS secretary's idea of dialoguing with gangs to resolve the crisis
Haiti, plunged into chaos by armed gangs controlling its capital and other areas of the country, or Colombia, where peace agreements failed to end decades of internal displacement, are some of the main focuses of this phenomenon, without forgetting the Venezuelan exodus or the one that continues in Central America and Mexico, now made difficult by the change in US reception policies. "The total number of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, returnees, stateless persons and other categories under UNHCR protection in the Americas reached 21.9 million at the end of 2024, 17.6% of the global total (123.2 million)," regional agency spokesman Luiz Fernando Godinho told EFE. Venezuela is the main country of origin for these displaced people (8.1 million), followed by Colombia (7.4 million) and Haiti (1.4 million), while in reference to the host territories, Colombia is the main one (9.5 million, many of them internally displaced), followed by the USA (2.5 million) and Peru (1.6 million).Haiti
Last year, the Haitian situation was particularly alarming, where the spread of gang violence from Port-au-Prince to other areas of the country caused the number of internally displaced persons to triple, from 313,900 to more than a million. From a nation where almost half of the 11.9 million civilians need humanitarian assistance and acute food insecurity affects more than 5 million people, the number of Haitian refugees and asylum seekers in other countries, mostly American, increased by 72,700 during the year, reaching 423,300. "UNHCR is extremely concerned about the deteriorating security, human rights, and humanitarian situation in Haiti, and reiterates its call for states not to forcibly return any person, including those whose asylum applications have been rejected," the regional spokesperson emphasized.Colombia
In Colombia, the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) did not completely end an internal armed conflict maintained by other armed groups, some newly formed, and which continues to cause displacement affecting seven million people. "It's another situation of great concern in America, despite all the efforts and the solid legal framework that exists in the country. It is necessary that these people can move towards lasting solutions," Godinho emphasized. According to UNHCR, three out of four internally displaced persons in Colombia do not intend to return to their communities of origin, so it is urgent to accelerate solutions in urban environments through measures such as the legalization of informal settlements.Venezuela and Others
Colombia is simultaneously one of the main host countries for Venezuelan refugees, who in the last decade have left their country due to the political and economic crisis, causing one of the largest current exiles, similar in size to that caused by conflicts such as those in Syria, Ukraine or Sudan. The UNHCR spokesperson nevertheless highlighted that returns of Venezuelan citizens to their country have also occurred: more than a million have done so on their own since 2018, and 300,000 with the help of the Plan Vuelta a la Patria launched by the government of Nicolás Maduro. In Central America, where refugees and migrants share routes that include dangerous and lethal stretches, such as the jungle-like Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama, the countries of the region also have significant numbers of displaced people: more than 800,000 Guatemalans, almost 430,000 Hondurans, 375,000 Nicaraguans or 225,000 Salvadorans, according to UNHCR data. The arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency, who declared a "national emergency" on the border with Mexico on the same day of his inauguration, has caused a strong impact on these flows, with the suspension of refugee admission programs, while others already in US territory were deported.This had the effect in early 2025 of an increase in requests for assistance at the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR), UNHCR highlighted, although it noted that the situation later stabilized and asylum applications in Mexico remain at levels similar to those of 2024, despite a pronounced decrease in crossings through the Darién.
