Public opinion reflects new stance
The nations of India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947 along what England considered to be religious boundaries. The hurried line that was drawn caused a massive exodus from both sides, and created a crisis involving 20 million refugees.
Everyone is familiar with World War II and the horrors that occurred between 1939 and 1945. As the conflict between the Axis and Allied powers raged on all across Europe and the Pacific, millions upon millions of people were displaced from their homes.
Studies of the refugee crisis caused by the largest war the world has seen to date put the total number of displaced individuals between 40 and 60 million.
The victors of World War II redrew many preexisting national boundaries around the world, often with very little consideration for the social and ethnic frontiers and connections that had already been in place for generations.
The conflicts that occurred across Europe and up and down the constantly changing Eastern and Western fronts caused the displacement of at least 14 million people.
The Syrian civil war has been raging since 2015, and has torn the country apart. Constant flares of guerilla warfare have taken an extreme toll on the population.
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and occupied the country until 1988.
As the conflict continues, more than 13 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes and seek asylum elsewhere. Another 6.7 million people have been internally displaced, forced to flee their homes but unable to leave the country.
Another conflict and crisis caused by the rushed partition of India and Pakistan occurred in present-day Bangladesh.
Before 1971, Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan. The Bangladeshi war for independence caused a massive refugee crisis, displacing about 10 million individuals.
The war, fought between the government and resistance forces, displaced more than four million people.
The civil war in South Sudan that began in 2013 triggered what came to be the largest refugee crisis in Africa.
As the violence rages on and food insecurity spreads rapidly, there is no end to the crisis in sight, and more than six million individuals have fled to neighboring countries.
Civil unrest in Venezuela has shaken the country since 2014.
Since Russian president Vladimir Putin put his “special military operation” into action and invaded Ukraine in February 2022, millions of Ukrainians fled westward in an attempt to escape the violence.
While the Gaza Strip acts as an open-air prison for more than 38,000 internally displaced Palestinians, another seven million individuals have been forced to flee their homeland in search of safety elsewhere.
As Yugoslavia was broken up into the six modern countries that exist today, two million people had to flee the war-torn region.
The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 sparked a long conflict within the country, the consequences of which are still being felt today.
The full effects of Russia’s invasion are yet to be seen, but as of April 2023 reports state that more than eight million Ukrainians have registered as refugees in Europe, and a further five million-plus are internally displaced.
More than 9.2 million Iraqis were pushed out of their homes by the violence, and have either fled to neighboring countries or remain internally displaced.
In addition to the harrowing number of deaths, the Rwandan genocide also caused over two million people to flee the country in search of safety.
As of March 2022, 750,000 individuals have fled to neighboring countries, and more than 2.6 million are displaced within the country.
Sources: (Epimonia) (World Vision) (Center for Disaster Philanthropy)
See also: Famous people who had to flee their home countries
The numerous wars for independence in what was known as Yugoslavia created what was at the time the largest refugee crisis Europe had seen since World War II.
Frequent clashes between the Soviet-backed communist government and the US-backed mujahideen rebels caused many Afghans to flee their homes out of fear of the violence occurring all around them. Around 6.2 million people were affected by the conflict.
The Great War, spurred by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, was the largest conflict the world had seen up to that point.
The humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been raging longer than any other, since the original partition of Mandatory Palestine in 1947.
Three decades of internal conflict, coupled with unrelenting natural disasters and food shortages, have left many Somalians no choice but to seek shelter and security in neighboring countries.
After a plane carrying Rwandan president Habyarimana and President Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down in 1994, a genocide that took the lives of 800,000 individuals took place in Rwanda.
War is hell, and always leaves destruction in its wake. Throughout history, ordinary people have been driven out of their homes and forced to go on long, often treacherous journeys in search of safety and asylum. These citizens are victims of situations largely out of their control, and typically receive little outside help. But their stories are important to listen to, and the more we understand about past crises, the more we can do to help the victims of today.
Read on to learn more about the worst refugee crises in history.
History's worst refugee crises
The worst refugee crises in history
LIFESTYLE Refugee crisis
War is hell, and always leaves destruction in its wake. Throughout history, ordinary people have been driven out of their homes and forced to go on long, often treacherous journeys in search of safety and asylum. These citizens are victims of situations largely out of their control, and typically receive little outside help. But their stories are important to listen to, and the more we understand about past crises, the more we can do to help the victims of today.
Read on to learn more about the worst refugee crises in history.