History of Refugees

People have been forced to leave their countries since the very notion of a country was created.

Israelites--- Canaan • 740 BC

When Assyrian rulers conquered the land of ancient Israel, 10 of the legendary 12 tribes were expelled from these lands.

Edict of Fontainebleau--- France • 1685

Louis XIV of France issued an edict that persecuted the Huguenots who practiced their Protestant faith freely, he created one of the first recognised displacements of a people across nation states. Around 200,000 fled their homes.

Muhacirs--- Ottoman Empire • 1783

In the course of 150 years, around 7 million Muslims arrived from other countries in what is today Turkey.

•750,000 Bulgarians who left during the Russo-Turkish war

•15,000 Turkish-Cypriots who left the island after it was leased to Great Britain

Pogroms--- Russia • 1881

The assassination of Tsar Alexander II unleashed a wave of brutal anti Jewish sentiment in Russia.

The Jews found themselves the subject of attack, that left thousands dead. Their treatment

prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million Jews towards the UK, US and elsewhere in Europe.

World War I--- Europe • 1914

World War I marked a rupture in Europe’s recent experience of refugees.

•During the German invasion of Belgium, massacres of thousands of civilians and the destruction of

buildings led to an exodus of more than a million people. Many came to England, which offered

"victims of war the hospitality of the British nation".

•After Austria-Hungary declared war on, and subsequently invaded Serbia, tens of thousands of

Serbians were forced to leave their homes.

•Some of the largest atrocities committed during and after World War I were directed at the

Armenians. The population of 2 million was decimated by what was later recognised as the first

genocide of the 20th century. Systematic persecution under the Ottoman empire meant that half

of that population were dead by 1918 and hundreds of thousands were homeless and stateless

refugees. Today, the Armenian diaspora is around 5 million in number, while there are just 3.3

million in what is today the republic of Armenia.

World War II--- Europe • 1945 

By the time WWII ended, there were more than 40 million refugees in Europe alone. Because the scale of the disaster was uncontrollable, international laws and organisations tasked to deal with refugees urgently by creating a foundation that is still relied on today. 

- 1938: Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees was created to facilitate a more coordinated                      approach to the resettlement of refugees

- 1943: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

- 1946: International Refugee Organisation created

- 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

- 1949: Geneva conventions - a series of four treaties (subsequently followed by three additional                    protocols) that set out in international law what is humanitarian conduct during armed                        conflict, including the treatment of civilians.

1950: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established

1951: Convention relating to the Status of Refugees became the corner stone of international law on refugees.

Even before the war’s end, thousands of Germans began to flee Eastern Europe. Most of those that remained were forcibly removed. In Czechoslovakia, more than 2 million were dumped over the country’s border. In Poland, Germans were rounded up before being removed by authorities. In Romania, around 400,000 Germans left their homes while Yugoslavia was virtually emptied of its 500,000-strong German community.

Nakba--- Palestine • 1948

Nakhba meaning Catastrophe was an attack led by a Zionist military group on an Arab village created the Palestinians’ worst fears. The result was a mass exodus of around 80% of Arabs on the land that was to become Israel. 

Idi Amin’s Order--- Uganda • 1972

In August 1972, General Idi Amin, the military ruler of Uganda, accused Asians resident in the country of being "bloodsuckers" and gave them 90 days to leave the country. Since Amin seized power in a military coup in 1971, he had increasingly spread propaganda about the country’s minorities, focusing on the Indian and Pakistani communities. Many of them had lived in the country for more than 100 years.

Approximately 90,000 Asians were expelled, around which 50,000 came to the UK, India and Canada. This wealthy group, which had a large stake in Uganda’s economy, had all of their assets confiscated, bank accounts closed, jewelry stolen.

Puppet governments--- Afghanistan • 1979

Afghanistan could be said to have had a refugee "crisis" as far back as 1979 when the Soviet Union occupied the country, sending as many as 5 million fleeing. The largest group ended up in Pakistan (they and their descendants number more than 1.5 million today). Repatriation rates have increased over the past decade.

Balkans conflicts--- Balkans • 1992

The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 left 200,000 dead and forced 2.7 million more to flee - making it the largest displacement of people in Europe since the second world war. Half of Bosnia’s entire population were displaced. Tens of thousands were taken in by western nations, chief among them the US and Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were also displaced by the Yugoslav wars - an estimated 700,000 sought refuge in Serbia.

Great Lakes Refugee Crisis--- Rwanda • 1994

Genocide is defined as "the act of committing certain crimes, including the killing of members of the group or causing serious physical or mental harm to "members of the group with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial or religious group, as such"

In the aftermath of the genocidal mass slaughter in 1994 of more than 500,000 Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda, there was a mass exodus of more than 2 million people from the country to neighbouring countries. Many settled in massive camps containing tens of thousands of people where mortality rates were exceptionally high. The camps became increasingly militarised and contributed to the escalation of further conflict in the region.

War in Darfur--- Sudan • 2003

When war broke out in the Darfur region of Sudan, it brought with it the deaths of 200,000 and the mass displacement of more than 2.5 million people from their homes. More than 3,300 villages had been destroyed by 2009.

Today, more than 2.6 million IDPs remain in Darfur while more than 250,000 are living in refugee camps in Chad alone.

Iraq war-- Iraq • 2003

Refugees have been a humanitarian issue for Iraq since its war with Iran in the 1980s, but the 2003 invasion resulted in a huge increase in their number. 4.7 million Iraqis have left their homes. Most settled in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, living without the protection of refugee laws in those countries and, in the case of Syria, facing renewed violence. As a result, some have started to return to Iraq and have been joined by Syrians attempting to escape the same conflict.

Colombian conflict--- Colombia

Because of Colombia’s low-level conflict started in the 60s and over the decades, 4 million have left their homes, almost 10% of the population. Only 400,000 of these have been able to leave the country, and the migration crisis has not attracted the attention of the international community that many argue it warrants.

Syrian civil war--- Syria • 2011

What started as protests not unlike those that had been seen in other Arab countries has degenerated into a civil war stalemate.

Though it’s the latest chapter in history’s biggest refugee movements, it is unlikely to be the last.

Many Syrians now live in tents and camps with no protection what so ever

"Most of the world’s refugees – 86 per cent -- live in the developing world, compared to 70 per cent 10 years ago. Most of these countries have kept their doors open to people in search of safety, and have shown a generosity that is often well beyond their means. I appeal to all Member States and our partners in civil society to do their utmost to support the nations and communities that have welcomed the forcibly displaced into their midst.."

Ban Ki-moon