Source: Lausanne and Operation World June 19, 2023 (email)
68.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes worldwide.
- 40 million have fled somewhere else in their own country.
- 25.4 million have left their country as refugees.
- 3.1 million are seeking asylum and argue they can never return home.
Of the 25 million who have left their homeland, around two-thirds have come from just five countries: South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, and Somalia. Peace and good government in these lands would solve most of the global refugee crisis.
85% of the world’s displaced people are hosted in developing countries. The top refugee-hosting countries—and rarely praised by the global community for this—are Turkey, Uganda, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Iran. In Lebanon, one in six of the population is a refugee.
Migrant flows today are nothing unusual in historical terms. Their numbers, as a proportion of the world, have not changed much in half a century.
- Pray for the protection of the lives and dignity of all those who leave their homes as migrants or refugees. The path they take is blighted by exploitation, illegal border crossings, rape, torture, and imprisonment.
- The presence of large numbers of migrants usually creates tensions and strains in receiving countries; pray for a balance between compassionate care for local people in need as well as refugees.
- Fair sharing between nations would ease the pressure on receiving countries. International cooperation could relieve great evil; pray for justice!
- The Christian faith has often taken root among refugees and in refugee camps. Pray for all who seek to serve refugees in Christ’s name. Pray that Christ will build his Church among those who have lost everything, turning ashes into beauty.
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Note: We notice that some sources list the number of refugees and displaced people as much higher. See also numbers from the UNHCR.