Could refugees not stay in their neighbour countries?

(NB: Numbers mentioned in this article date from 2022, graphics are from 2020)

The short answer is: They do! But it is not a durable solution. The rich countries should send more money to the neighbour countries, but that is not enough. More have to be lifted out of the heavily strained areas and get resettled in more stable countries.

Many of the ones arriving in Denmark have already tried to survive in a neighbour country for a period, sometimes for many years. Moving to the other end of the world is not the first thought that comes to mind. Furthermore it's extremely expensive to come to Europe, and usually very dangerous.

DENMARK VERSUS LEBANON 2020

In Turkey, only 10% of the Syrian refugees live in refugee camps. The rest are struggling to survive on their own – with limited rights to work, and the children have no access to schools. Turkey is not even safe, as refugees are often returned across the border to Syria and Iran. It's not possible to be granted asylum in Turkey, only to be installed temporarily in a refugee camp. If Europe had received the same number of refugees as Turkey, 26 mio would have arrived to Europe.

Three out of four refugees are in a neighbour country. Thus, most of the Syrian refugees are in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon, while the Afghans are in Pakistan or Iran. This puts extra pressure on countries which already have enough problems with internal conflicts and a livelihood for their own population. The global society does not contribute sufficiently to these host nations, only making speeches and empty promises to "assist in the neighbour regions".

The developing countries are hosting the majority of the world's refugees. Only 16% are in developed countries. Out of these, Denmark has received very few measured by our population and our economy (read more under How many does Denmark receive proportionally?)

One third of the world's refugees live in the poorest countries, including Bangladesh, Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen. These countries account for 13% of the world's population and only 1.25% of global GDP, but nevertheless host 33% of the world's refugees. Many of the refugees contribute to the economy, of course, but they also put pressure on the locals and often increase internal tensions in unstable and weak countries.

At the same time, developing countries typically do not have a proper asylum procedure, but rely on UNHCR to grant general refugee status, and they rarely grant the same rights to work, buy houses, start a business, go to school, etc. as their own population holds. Many refugees are therefore dependent on emergency aid and spend decades, perhaps their entire lives, in huge, permanent refugee camps such as Dadaab in Kenya, Zaatari in Jordan and the now bombed-out Yarmouk in Damascus. The UN has unmanageable waiting lists in its quota program because too few countries sign up and accept too few people.