3 countries protect half of last year's refugees: NGO

By Sadik Kedir Abdu

ANKARA

Turkey, Bangladesh and Uganda received half of last year's worldwide refugees, an Oslo-based agency said on Tuesday.

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in a statement said that the number of refugees across the world reached nearly 69 million at the start of 2018, referring to figures from the UN Refugee Agency.

These figures mark last year as the year which registered the highest number of refugees.

“International responsibility-sharing for displaced people has utterly collapsed. Rich countries are building walls against families fleeing war, at the same time as less money is available for aid to people in conflict areas," said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the agency, as quoted in the statement.

Turkey received the most refugees last year by opening its doors to 700,000 people, the council said.

“In comparison, the rest of Europe as a whole received about half a million refugees last year, and the US received about 60,000.

"When people in need at sea become pieces in a political game, it is a grotesque symbol of the current lack of a proper system for international responsibility sharing," he concluded, recalling a recent move by Italy’s new government that turned away a boat carrying over 600 migrants.