Facts and trends

244 million international migrants are equivalent to about 3.3% of the world's population. Some 150 million of them have left their home countries to find work. Of these migrant workers, around half are women and a third are young people aged between 15 and 34.

There are currently over 79 million displaced people worldwide according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  They have left their countries of origin because of persecution or exposure to serious violence. This includes more than 30 million children and young people under 18 years of age. The number of child refugees under the UNHCR's mandate has almost doubled in the space of 10 years.

In addition to the documented refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers, millions more are forced to leave their homes involuntarily.  Because their situation does not correspond to any internationally recognised category, they do not fall under any established legal protection system such as the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Drivers of involuntary migration include natural disasters and the negative effects of climate change, the consequences of state fragility, systemic poverty and a lack of prospects.

The lack of protection for migrants in vulnerable situations remains one of the major loopholes in current international migration governance. Significant progress has been made in recent years in recognising that all migrants, irrespective of their legal residency status, have fundamental human rights that must be protected. However, the major challenge is ensuring that these international obligations are honoured.

This is where, for example, the protection agenda for people displaced by natural disasters and the effects of climate change, which evolved from the Swiss-Norwegian Nansen Initiative, can make a difference. The protection agenda highlights ways of improving protection for affected populations through measures in various relevant areas, such as disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development efforts to strengthen the resilience of affected communities.