More than 84 million people fled their homes between January and November 2021, according to the UN Refugee Agency
Armed conflict in the area where they live is one of the main reasons why people leave their homes in search of a better life. Unfortunately, during 2021 the level of violence in the world did not subside, and the already not the most prosperous African continent suffered the most. The rapidly escalating conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has caused massive cross-border displacement. Even before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the deteriorating security situation in the country had forced more than a quarter of a million people to flee their homes by the summer.
This brings the total number of internally displaced persons in the country to 3.5 million. Internal refugees in Afghanistan gather at an aid distribution center in Kabul.
The scale of displacement in Mexico and Central America this year has been “unprecedented,” according to UNHCR. Nearly a million people in the region have fled their homes due to drug wars, organized crime violence, the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
At least 1,140 people drowned trying to reach Europe by boat in the first six months of 2021. Hundreds of others died in the second half of the year trying to reach Europe from northern African states and Turkey.
A new wave of refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, where the economic situation is deteriorating literally every month, is increasingly looming on the horizon. Migration problems are growing in South Asia and the Sahel countries. Over the past three years alone, the number of refugees reaching the shores of France and Great Britain has increased almost 25 times.
However, labor migration also remains: private individuals send $6.2 billion annually from Russia to the CIS countries, according to Central Bank data. The bulk of this amount is the earnings of migrant workers, which they send home. 97.4% of foreign workers provide family assistance in this way. The rest either carry it themselves or pass it on through fellow countrymen, the Federation of Migrants of Russia said. By the end of 2022, with the adoption of the law, the government plans to introduce a digital migrant IT card; it will replace the passports of workers in the countries of origin and will be an identity document. The card will be valid for 10 years throughout Russia, and the work patent is tied to the region of issue. After 10 years, if the card owner has no violations, it will become unlimited.
