MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

TERRORISM
& THE REFUGEE CRISIS
The countries with the highest number of deaths as a result of terrorism also have
some of the highest levels of internally displaced people. There were over 16 million
refugees and IDPs from the five countries with the highest levels of terrorism in 2014.
This includes Syria, which has over seven million IDPs. Approximately 70 per cent of
the UN Refugee Agency’s total population of concern came from the 20 countries with
the highest number of terrorism-related fatalities.
The link between refugees and IDPs and terrorism appears even starker
in figure 31. There were 11 countries that had more than 500 deaths
from terrorism in 2014. Apart from Cameroon, all of these countries had
the highest levels of refugees and IDPs in the world. Cameroon ranked
as having the 30 highest levels of refugees and IDPs in the world. The
world’s 60 million displaced people are fleeing traditional armed
conflict, political persecution and other forms of violence in addition to
terrorism. Figure 33 highlights the number of first-time asylum seeker
applications to the EU for four countries of the five countries with the
highest deaths from terrorism. These four countries are all accessible to
Europe by land: Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. Each county had
more first-time asylum applications lodged in the first seven months of
2015 than in all of 2014.
While Europe struggles to accommodate the recent influx of arrivals,
Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon continue to host nearly one third of the
world’s refugees, or 4.25 million displaced people. Figure 32 highlights
the foreign refugee populations in 2014.
Amidst the recent rise in displacement, concerns have surfaced about the
link between refugees and future acts of terrorism, with Western
countries expressing fears that accepting refugees will leave them
vulnerable to violence. Anecdotal evidence suggests that refugee camps
and their associated conditions of poverty, insecurity and vulnerability
can serve as so-called breeding grounds for terrorism. .
Of the ten countries which host the most refugees only one country,
Pakistan, had among the highest levels of terrorism. Turkey, Lebanon and
Iran are all impacted by regional conflict and yet had fewer terrorismrelated
fatalities than many countries which do not host large numbers of
refugees. Germany, the country with the second largest refugee intake in
Europe, has not had a death from terrorism since 2007.
BOX 3 THE 2015 REFUGEE CRISIS
At the start of 2015, nearly 60 million
people worldwide were displaced from
their homes by violence and violent
conflict, including terrorism. This is the
highest number of forcibly displaced
people since the end of the Second World
War. There are 12 million refugees and IDPs
from Syria alone, more than half of the
Syrian population. The majority of Syrian
refugees have fled to the neighbouring
countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt,
Jordan and Iraq. In the first seven months
of 2015 the number of first-time asylum
seeker applications in the EU reached 1.9
million. This is four times the figure for the
entire year of 2008. However, these
applications represent just three per cent
of the world’s displaced people.
As the refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan
and Turkey filled and winter ended,
hundreds of thousands of Syrians
embarked on international journeys to seek
safety in European countries. From January
until August 2015 there have been nearly
half a million Syrians applying for asylum in
Europe. They are joined by a half million
Afghanis, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Nigerians.
As violent conflicts and terrorism continue
in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and
Nigeria, the flow of migrants seeking
refuge in Europe is likely to continue.
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Terrorism in Western Countries
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