The world's biggest migrant and refugee crises

Fear, discrimination and extortion: what migrants must face 4:38

(CNN Spanish) -

From the crowds under a bridge on the border between Mexico and the United States and Venezuelans walking through Latin America to the migrant camps in Belarus and the efforts to relocate thousands of Afghans after the end of a war 20 years old, 2021 was a year marked by migration crises.

According to the "World Migration Report 2022" of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), by 2020 there were around 281 million international migrants. However, in the last two years there have been significant migration and displacement events due to conflict or serious economic and political instability. The United Nations Organization also highlights the displacement caused by climatic disasters.

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Migrants, including children, trying to enter the EU scream through the barbed wire fence that the Polish authorities put up on the border with Belarus in November 2021. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been accused by the EU of orchestrate the migration crisis after the sanctions imposed, but he has denied it.

(MAXIM GUCHEK / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images) →

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Polish agents used water cannons against migrants gathered at the Bruzgi-Kuznica checkpoint on the Polish-Belarusian border in November 2021. The protesters said their anger stemmed from being stranded in the extreme cold and no basic services in the camps.

(LEONID SHCHEGLOV / BELTA / AFP via Getty Images)

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Venezuelan migrants take refuge on the seashore to avoid being attacked by protesters during a protest march against illegal migration in Iquique, Chile, in September 2021. (MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP via Getty Images)

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A United States border patrol agent on horseback tries to detain migrants on the banks of the Rio Grande last September (Credit: Paul Ratje / AFP via Getty Images)

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Thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, set up a makeshift camp to protect themselves from the sun and the precarious conditions under the border bridge that connects Ciudad Acuña, in Mexico, with Del Río, in Texas, in September 2021. (Adress Latif / Reuters)

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Syrian migrants displaced by war arrive in a rubber boat on the Greek island of Lesbos in September 2015. Many migrants lose their lives crossing the Aegean Sea in similar boats.

(ANGELOS TZORTZINIS / AFP / Getty Images)

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Migrants fall into the water during a rescue operation for the Topaz Responder ship led by the Maltese NGO Moas and the Italian Red Cross, off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea, in November 2016. (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP via Getty Images )

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Funerals carry the body of a migrant on the beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in May 2021. The migrants swam around rocky breakwaters that jut out into the Mediterranean and mark the border between Spain and Africa.

(ANTONIO SEMPERE / AFP via Getty Images)

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Some 8,000 migrants from Morocco swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in May 2021. This is the largest influx of illegal immigration to this place in a single day, a Spanish government spokesperson told CNN.

(FADEL SENNA / AFP via Getty Images)

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Facilities of the main detention center for unaccompanied minors administered by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in Donna, Texas in March 2021. (DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS / AFP via Getty Images)

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Migrants of different nationalities wait in the wooden boat in which they were traveling to be transferred to the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms in March 2021. (Carlos Gil / Getty Images)

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Migrants aboard the Guardia di Finanza ship arrive on the Italian island of Lampedusa in August 2019 after being evacuated from the rescue ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, which spent twenty days at sea waiting for Europe to allow them to disembark. to migrants in a safe harbor (ALESSANDRO SERRANO / AFP via Getty Images)

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Children play on a seesaw installed in the wall that divides the border of Mexico and the United States, between Anapra, Chihuahua and Sunland, New Mexico in July 2019. (University of California)

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Venezuelan migrants walk across the border from Venezuela to Colombia in June 2019, forced to leave their country due to the deep political, economic and social crisis that is being experienced.

Due to its geographical proximity, Colombia is the first recipient country of the Venezuelan diaspora.

There are more than 40% of the almost 4 million Venezuelans around the world, according to figures from Migración Colombia and a report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) (Guillermo Legaria / Getty Images)

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A father and daughter, originally from El Salvador, drowned in the Rio Grande when they tried to cross from Mexico to the United States in June 2019. The image went around the world causing outrage.

(Julia Le Duc)

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Venezuelan migrants board a truck on the Cúcuta highway in the Norte de Santander department, Colombia in February 2019. (RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP via Getty Images)

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A caravan of Central American migrants en route to Tapachula, Chiapas, in Mexico with the intention of reaching the border with the United States in November 2018. (JOHAN ORDONEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

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"Las Patronas" is a group of twelve women who feed migrants during their journey through Mexico to the United States on a train known as "La Bestia."

They wait for the train and distribute bags of food to migrant travelers in August 2018. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)

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A two-year-old girl cries desperately as her mother is searched and detained near McAllen, Texas in June 2018. The Honduran asylum seekers had crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico and were detained by US Border Patrol agents. before being sent to a processing center for possible separation.

(John Moore / Getty Images)

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The powerful and tragic image of the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy lying lifeless on his stomach on a Turkish beach sparked a worldwide demonstration of mourning.

It happened in September 2015 after a ship carrying refugees sank while reaching the Greek island of Kos.

(Nilufer Demir / Dogan News Agency / AFP via Getty Images)

By 2020, 89.4 million people were living in displacement, the IOM estimated.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), for its part, reported in mid-2021 that as a result of conflicts, violence, human rights violations, persecution and natural disasters, the number of forced displacements around the world it exceeded 84 million people.

• At least 650 migrants died crossing the border between Mexico and the United States, the most since 2014, according to an international body

According to UNHCR, more than 68% of refugees and displaced persons worldwide come from just five countries:

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• Syria: 6.8 million

• Venezuela: 4.1 million

• Afghanistan: 2.6 million

• South Sudan: 2.3 million

• Myanmar: 1.1 million

Although in 2020 the situation for refugees and displaced persons was more difficult, as a large number of countries closed their borders due to the covid-19 pandemic, access to asylum was and continues to save the lives of many.

However, public health policies - such as "Title 42" in the US - continue to limit access to asylum, according to the UNHCR report.

With regard to migration from the Caribbean, in recent years there has been an increase in the presence of people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.

According to the IOM data portal, some of these people “transit from Colombia to Panama through the Darien jungle en route to the US and Canada.

• Where do migrants come from and where are they going in Latin America?

"More than 100,000 migrants so far this year have irregularly crossed the dangerous jungle of the Darien Gap into Panama from Colombia after walking through several countries in South America. The figure for the first nine months of 2021 triples the previous record of 30,000 on the same route throughout 2016. From Panama, migrants continue north on a journey that is particularly dangerous for women and children, "IOM said in a statement.

UNICEF has reported with concern that nearly 19,000 migrant children have crossed the Darien region on foot in 2021.

In the American continent alone, the IOM registered 1,121 deaths, including the victims of the traffic accident in Chiapas that killed at least 55 migrants in December.

Deaths in South America also broke record with 137 deaths, 64 of them were of Venezuelan citizens.

By the end of 2021, the number of migrant deaths worldwide had surpassed 4,470.

This is a look at five of the main focuses of the global migration crisis that marked 2021.

The millions of displaced in Venezuela

Venezuela's is one of the biggest displacement crises in the world.

By mid-2021, a total of 5.1 million Venezuelans have left the country.

This includes 186,800 refugees, 952,300 who are seeking asylum and 3.9 million who were displaced abroad, according to UNHCR.

The reasons?

According to the United Nations, people continue to leave Venezuela to escape violence, insecurity and a shortage of medicine and basic services.

Venezuela is the second country, after Haiti, with the highest rate of undernourishment, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

• Venezuela, among the countries with the most displaced people in the world;

  Colombia, among those who receive the most

Currently, more than 5 million Venezuelans live abroad, many of them in neighboring countries, such as Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile.

In Latin America and the Caribbean,

However, "hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans remain without any type of documentation or permission to stay regularly in nearby countries and, therefore, lack guaranteed access to basic rights," according to UNHCR.

The agency indicates that the lack of documentation and adequate permits make this population more vulnerable to labor and sexual exploitation, trafficking, violence, discrimination and xenophobia.

• See more of the 2021 recap

Another difficult year on the southern border of the United States

US records record number of arrests at southern border 1:39

This year, at least 651 people died trying to cross the US-Mexico border, more than in any other year since an international body began documenting the deaths in 2014. And while the IOM did not specify the reason for the deaths, Deaths, crossing the southern US border is often a dangerous journey that has resulted in deaths and rescues over the years.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has previously said that most migrant deaths at the border have been related to heat exposure.

On the other hand, the US Border Patrol reported nearly 1.66 million arrests for illegal border crossings with Mexico last year, the highest annual number of arrests on record, according to data released by the agency on Friday. .

Since taking office, Joe Biden's administration has struggled to manage the unprecedented number of migrants crossing into the U.S., faced from the outset with an influx of children that overwhelmed resources and, more recently, the thousands of migrants arriving in a matter of days in the unprepared region of Del Rio, Texas.

• Texas Governor Debuts Border Wall Construction

Since March 2020, CBP has been enforcing a public health order known as Title 42, which, based on health prevention criteria, allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants that has been linked to an increase in the number of people who have crossed repeatedly and with a high number of arrests. Likewise, after an adverse court ruling by states where Republicans rule, the Biden administration was forced to reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" or "Remain in Mexico" program, which obliges migrants of different nationalities to remain in Mexico. that country while their asylum applications are resolved in the US.

Immigrant rights advocates and some lawmakers have criticized Biden for maintaining the Trump-era pandemic policy, calling it violating human rights.

The Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has said that the government maintains its position against Remaining in Mexico.

The case is still pending in the appeals courts, where the government defends its decision to terminate the program.

Haiti adrift

Haitians sue US for using aggressive border tactics 2:36

This year Haiti suffered the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, a devastating earthquake and the passage of Tropical Storm Grace, which generated uncertainty in a country where poverty and violence persist.

According to the UN, as of mid-2020 there were 1,769,671 Haitians in other countries.

• In which countries of the world are those who have left Haiti?

By mid-2020, the United States was home to the world's largest Haitian migrant population, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

A significant number of Haitians also live in the Dominican Republic (496,000), Chile (237,000), Canada (101,000) and France (85,000).

And although this year saw a large influx of Haitian immigrants, the MPI indicates that this group was not exactly escaping the recent events in the country, but that they are part of a generation of Haitians that have emigrated since the 2010 earthquake. the economic cost of the pandemic in the region further drove migration to the southern US border.

The reason Haitians moved to the US border had to do with the announcement in May of an 18-month temporary protected status.

The Homeland Security Secretary had cited "security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty and a lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic."

More than 97% of Haitians who migrate to the United States do not come directly from Haiti, but were residents of South American countries, such as Chile and Brazil, according to the government of Panama.

More than 70,000 migrants arrived in Panama in 2021, more than 30,000 of whom are from Haiti.

Violence erupts on the border between Poland and Belarus

CNN reporter spends day with migrants at Belarus border 3:08

The European Union (EU) has blamed Belarus for fabricating the crisis on the bloc's eastern border, claiming that the government has opened doors to people desperate to flee a region beset by unemployment and instability.

EU officials have called it a "hybrid war," designed, they say, to punish Poland for harboring the president's political opponents and pressure the bloc to lift sanctions on Belarus.

But it has had the opposite effect.

• The migrants left everything to reach Europe across the Belarusian-Polish border.

  Now they are sent by hundreds to their countries

Deteriorating conditions on the eastern border of the European Union underscores the grim human cost of the geopolitical stalemate that is taking place between Russia's ally Belarus and NATO and bloc member Poland.

Neither side is willing to give in, leaving immigrants caught in the middle.

Poland is under the crosshairs of international aid organizations, who say they are violating international law by pushing asylum seekers back to Belarus, rather than accepting their applications for international protection.

Poland defends its actions, saying they are legal.

The United Nations estimates that there are up to 2,000 migrants and refugees on the border with Poland, most of them Kurds from Iraq, but also Syrians, Iranians and Afghans, among others.

It also estimates that there are approximately 7,000 migrants and refugees currently in Belarus.

Recently, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada took coordinated action against various Belarusian entities and individuals in their latest effort to pressure Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in response to the migration crisis.

• Violence erupts on the border between Poland and Belarus: Polish guards fire water cannons at migrants who throw stones

In a joint statement they demanded that Lukashenko "immediately and completely stop his orchestration of irregular migration across its borders to the EU."

"Those, in Belarus or third countries, who facilitate the illegal crossing of the EU's external borders should know that this comes at a substantial cost," the nations said.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, speaking at the Ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Stockholm, said Belarus has been "punished" with sanctions "only because we have disclosed the" dark side "of European democracy".

Afghanistan after the end of a 20-year war

Which countries are hosting refugees from Afghanistan?

2:06

Even before the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, poverty and food insecurity were widespread due to consecutive droughts, economic decline, protracted conflict and the pandemic.

However, the crisis has rapidly worsened.

Currently, around 6 million Afghans have been displaced from their homes and their country due to the conflicts, violence and poverty that exist, according to the United Nations.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said in early December that some 3.5 million Afghans have been forcibly displaced, including nearly 700,000 who were displaced this year.

Afghan refugees are the third most displaced population in the world, after Syrian and Venezuelan refugees.

• Afghanistan came to the end of an era this year, but what's next?

This year, the Taliban government faced an economic crisis after billions of dollars in foreign aid were depleted depriving the country of money that had been fueling the economy, basic services and humanitarian workers.

The United Nations says the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan could be "the worst in the world", with more than half of its population starving.

"Afghanistan is now among the worst humanitarian crises in the world - if not the worst - and food security is practically collapsed," said David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program. "Millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between emigration and famine unless we can step up our life-saving aid and unless the economy can be revived, "he added.

In a statement to CNN, the Taliban acknowledged the country's "economic problems" but vehemently denied that there was a crisis, calling such claims "fake news."

"No one will starve because there is no famine and cities are full of food," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, contradicting disturbing images of starving children.

Anna Coren, Jessie Yeung, Abdul Basir Bina, Jadyn Sham, Amir Vera, Carma Hassan, Sol Amaya, Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands, Matthew Chance, Zahra Ullah, Antonia Mortensen, Eliza Mackintosh of CNN contributed to this report.

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