UNHCR Refugee Data Since 1951

Refugee Convention in 1951

The post war refugee issue was started in 1951 when the successors of the League of Nations held the refugee convention in 1951. You can read the official explanation about the historical background of refugee policies by UNHCR.

The 1951 Refugee Convention | UNHCR

In the aftermath of the First World War (1914 - 1918), millions of people fled their homelands in search of refuge. Governments responded by drawing up a set of international agreements to provide travel documents for these people who were, effectively, the first recognized refugees of the 20th century. Their numbers increased dramatically during and after the Second World War (1939-1945), as millions more were forcibly displaced. In response, the international community steadily assembled a set of guidelines, laws and conventions aimed at protecting the basic human rights and treatment of people forced to flee conflict and persecution. The process, which began under the League of Nations in 1921, culminated in the 1951 Convention which consolidated and expanded on previous international instruments relating to refugees and continues to provide the most comprehensive codification of the rights of refugees at the international level.

If you read the original text of 1951 Refugee Convention, you can find that there are two origins of the definitions of "refugees" - The Arrangements of 12 May 1926/ 30 June 1928 or Conventions of 28 October 1933/ 10 February 1936.

The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees | UNHCR

Let's check the details of such arrangements and conventions respectively.

1. Arrangement Relating to the Issue of Identify Certificates to Russian and Armenian Refugees | Refworld (12 May 1926) : to help Russian and Armenian refugees (the victims of the communist revolution and 'Armenian Genocide' by Young Turks

2. Arrangement Relating to the Legal Status of Russian and Armenian Refugees | Refworld (30 June 1928) : Same (the main targets of great purge by communists)

3. Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees | Refworld (28 October, 1933) : Same (The present Convention is applicable to Russian, Armenian and assimilated refugees, a s defined by the Arrangements of May 12th, 1926, and June 30th, 1928)

4. Convention concerning the Status of Refugees Coming From Germany | Refworld (10 February 1936) : Refugees from Germany

Only the last document shows "refugees from Germany", but aside from it, all documents indicate Russian and Armenian refugees are their main concern.

I will add some historical contexts here.

Feb. 19, 1915 - Jan. 9, 1916: Gallipoli Campaign

Apr. 24, 1915-1923: Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire

Mar. 8, 1917 - Jun. 16, 1923: Russian Revolution

Nov. 2, 1917: Balfour Declaration

Jan. 10, 1920: Establishment of the League of Nations

Apr. 25, 1920: Establishment of the Mandatory Palestine (-1948)

Refugee Arrangement - 12 May 1926

Refugee Arrangement - 30 June 1928

Jan. 30, 1933: Hitler Seized Power in Germany

Refugee Convention - 28 October, 1933

Mar. 25, 1933: Japan's Withdrawal from the Leaguer of Nations

Nov. 12, 1933: Germany's Withdrawal from the LN

(Many Spanish speaking countries also left the LN in 1930s - Member states of the League of Nations - Wikipedia)

Refugee Convention - 10 February 1936

Mar. 12, 1938: Germany Annexed Austria (Anschluss)

Sep. 1, 1939 - Sep. 2, 1945: WWII

Dec. 14, 1939: Expulsion of Soviet from the League of Nations

It is noted that the refugee convention in 1933 happened after Hitler seized the power in Germany. And the refugee convention in 1933 still focused on Russian empire and Armenian refugees. Thus, seemingly Hitler was not a major issue related to refugees until 1936. Until 1936, Japan, Germany, and many Spanish speaking Latin American countries left the League of Nations. Just like the current situation, assumingly such states opposed to the refugee policy by LN. And such actions may caused the hostility of LN against Germany. And then, the 4th refugee convention focused on the 'refugees from Germany'. But are the refugees really 'Jewish' (who sustained the politics of Soviet)?

Aside from the 4th convention, all other refugee arrangements and convention focused on the refugees from Russian empire and Armenians, namely the victims of communism revolution. Naturally, I can assume that the League of Nation was established by such anti-communists and their main purpose is to protect such anti-communist refugees or expand the realm of anti-communists. Many people wanted to reject to accept such anti-communist refugees and they quit the League of Nations. Then, how is it possible that the League of Nations helped communist Jewish only in the 4th refugee convention?

I suspect that they (LN) mainly helped such Russian empire and Armenian refugees also in the 4th convention. So, it is likely that such Russian empire and Armenian refugees moved to Germany until 1930s, and they were about to purged by Hitler or German communists. At that time, German soldiers were also targeted to be brainwashed by doomsday cult and Zoroaster. So, the Veda cult - Aryans arrived at Germany as refugees and gradually, they invaded it as well as usual.

As for the persecution of real "Jewish", I suspect that it was rather caused by the Aryans or the "refugees" who arrived in Germany at that time.

UNHCR Refugee Data since 1951

In any case, let's check the oldest part of the refugee data by UNHCR. There are a bit difference from the refugee data by World Bank.

Refugee Data Finder - Data Finder

This refugee data by UNHCR starts in 1951. Also, there is a column of the origin of refugees (it may include the place they stayed before they came to the current country)

Here is a map about the refugee acceptance in 1951. It shows that US was the top country for refugee acceptances although it was Truman era (not Eisenhower nor Kennedy).

Here is the table of the host countries in 1951. All refugees in 1951 were "origin unknown". Also, there are people who neither have the data country of Asylum. These people went to Jordan and Palestine by comparing the statistics in 1960 between the one of UNHCR and the World Bank. However, UNHCR and UNRWA divided their mandate. So, the data from UNHCR did not include the refugees under the UNRWA's responsibility.

Year	Country of origin	Country of asylum	Refugees under UNHCR's mandate	Asylum-seekers	Returned refugees	IDPs of concern to UNHCR	Returned IDPss	Stateless persons	Others of concern	Other people in need of international protection	Host Community
1951	Unknown	United States of America	350000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	France	290000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Austria	282000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Germany	265000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern I...	208000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Australia	180000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Canada	168511	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Unknown	158800	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Belgium	55000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Sweden	44000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	China, Hong Kong SAR	30000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Italy	26500	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Greece	18000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Netherlands (Kingdom of the)	14200	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Switzerland	10000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Morocco	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Türkiye	2700	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Norway	2500	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Denmark	2000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Spain	2000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Tunisia	2000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
1951	Unknown	Luxembourg	1800	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0

Here is the data of refugee acceptance in 1960 by World Bank. And the next table is by UNHCR. You can find a certain difference between them. You can find that most refugees were origin unknown until 1960s.

(Refugee Recipient Countries in 1960 by World Bank)

Country Name	Country Code	1960	1961	1962	1963
Jordan	JOR	623660.0	633197.0	644940.0	662525.0
United States	USA	500000.0	500000.0	500000.0	500000.0
West Bank and Gaza	PSE	258165.0	265430.0	273038.0	283782.0
France	FRA	245935.0	253375.0	259740.0	174057.0
Germany	DEU	197000.0	190000.0	185000.0	182000.0
United Kingdom	GBR	167000.0	164000.0	160000.0	157000.0
Congo, Dem. Rep.	COD	150000.0	203000.0	223000.0	237000.0
Lebanon	LBN	137884.0	142670.0	146969.0	152747.0
Syrian Arab Republic	SYR	116778.0	120577.0	124626.0	129010.0
Belgium	BEL	55000.0	53000.0	51000.0	50000.0
Canada	CAN	48629.0	44492.0	12282.0	10946.0
Austria	AUT	39000.0	34000.0	30000.0	27000.0
Sweden	SWE	26000.0	26000.0	26000.0	26000.0
Switzerland	CHE	20000.0	20000.0	20000.0	20000.0
Italy	ITA	15500.0	14500.0	14300.0	14600.0
Greece	GRC	15500.0	15200.0	15700.0	15400.0
Netherlands	NLD	12000.0	10000.0	10000.0	9500.0
Norway	NOR	3000.0	3000.0	3000.0	3000.0
Morocco	MAR	2700.0	2900.0	2900.0	3200.0
Denmark	DNK	2300.0	2200.0	2200.0	2200.0
Turkiye	TUR	2200.0	2300.0	2300.0	2300.0
Luxembourg	LUX	1900.0	1900.0	1900.0	1900.0
Tunisia	TUN	1000.0	1000.0	1000.0	1000.0

(Refugee Recipient Countries by UNHCR)

	Year	Country of origin	Country of asylum	Refugees under UNHCR's mandate	Asylum-seekers	Returned refugees	IDPs of concern to UNHCR	Returned IDPss	Stateless persons	Others of concern	Other people in need of international protection	Host Community
186	1960	Unknown	United States of America	500000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
173	1960	Unknown	France	245935	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
175	1960	Unknown	Germany	197000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
174	1960	Unknown	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern I...	167000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
187	1960	Unknown	Unknown	152000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
171	1960	Angola	Dem. Rep. of the Congo	150000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
169	1960	Unknown	Belgium	55000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
170	1960	Unknown	Canada	48629	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
168	1960	Unknown	Austria	39000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
182	1960	Unknown	Sweden	26000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
183	1960	Unknown	Switzerland	20000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
177	1960	Unknown	Italy	15500	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
176	1960	Unknown	Greece	15500	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
180	1960	Unknown	Netherlands (Kingdom of the)	12000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
181	1960	Unknown	Norway	3000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
179	1960	Unknown	Morocco	2700	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
172	1960	Unknown	Denmark	2300	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
185	1960	Unknown	Türkiye	2200	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
178	1960	Unknown	Luxembourg	1900	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0
184	1960	Unknown	Tunisia	1000	0	0	0	0	0	0	NaN	0

In the next articles, I will investigate the further details of this refugee data.