According to UN statistics, in 2017 every two seconds a person was displaced

One out of every 110 people in the world is a refugee, internally displaced person or is seeking asylum, according to the latest Global Trends report from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). More than 65 million people have been forced to leave their homes because of conflicts in their countries or cities. Some countries have known how to open the door to the victims of the regrettable scourge and one of them is in Latin America.

Although it is not the largest in South America, Ecuador has become the country in the region that receives the most refugees. According to data from the UNHCR report, the Andean nation welcomes 60,524 refugees within its borders. This figure doubles the sum of the total number of refugees found in the other Latin American countries.

Leer en español: Este es el país latinoamericano que más refugiados acoge

Ecuador is even higher than Brazil, which ranks as the second country that receives more refugees in Latin America, which has welcomed 9,689 people, a portion almost seven times smaller than the one hosted in Ecuador.

It not only gives refuge, it also grants dignity

According to what the UNHCR representative in Ecuador, María Clara Martín, indicates for the BBC, the reasons why Ecuador is positioned as the country with the most refugees in the region are the sensitivity of its population to humanitarian crises and the laws that allow the concession of refugee bylaws more quickly and fairly.

Ecuador approved in January 2017 the Human Mobility Law, a regulation that allows nationalization after three years and offers documentation, confers rights, access to work, education, health and all the benefits granted in a natural way to a national. This legislation is perhaps also responsible for Ecuador being considered by UNHCR as one of the world leaders in relation to the treatment it accords to the refugee population.

Read also: Is international patience with refugees gone?

As Martin tells the BBC, 98% of people with refugee status living in Ecuador are Colombians, who since 1989 began to seek refuge in neighboring countries fleeing violence and crime. The remaining 2% is represented by Afghans, Syrians, Venezuelans, Cubans, Iranians, Yemenites, Iraqis, among others.

The biggest humanitarian crisis after the Second World War

According to reports from the United Nations Organization, on average in 2017 every two seconds a person was displaced on the planet. In 2016 the number of global displaced reached a new record exceeding 65 million people and thus became the largest humanitarian crisis after the Second World War.

Turkey has been lasting four consecutive years the country that has received the most refugees (3.5 million), followed by Uganda and Pakistan with 1.4 and 1.3 million refugees respectively.

More than two thirds of the total number of refugees in the world (6.3 million) have been responsible for the war in Syria. Behind Syria are Afghanistan with 2.6 million, South Sudan with 2.4 million, Myanmar with 1.2 million and Somalia with 986.400, according to the latest report submitted by UNHCR.

This is the list of Latin American countries that receive the most refugees

LatinAmerican Post | Krishna Jaramillo

Translated from "Este es el país latinoamericano que más refugiados acoge"