BERLIN, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of refugees living in Germany reached 3.3 million in 2021, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Monday on the occasion of World Refugee Day.
More than one in three of these refugees arrived in Germany between 2014 and 2021. Another large group, just under 1 million people, fled or were displaced to Germany immediately after and as a result of World War II. Their average age is 82.
Germany's total population increased to 83.2 million in 2021 and was again larger than before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. This was mainly due to an increase in net immigration to around 300,000 people, according to Destatis.
Most refugees residing in Germany in 2021 arrived from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Even before the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 38,000 Ukrainians were seeking shelter in Germany, according to Destatis.
Since then, an additional 850,000 Ukrainian refugees have been registered in Germany, Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said last week.
The German government has pledged 2 billion euros (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) to support the accommodation and integration of refugees from Ukraine. Since early June, they also receive basic income benefits as "recognized refugees."
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of refugees worldwide reached 100 million for the first time in May. This figure has more than doubled in the past ten years.
"The solutions deficit continues to grow as more people are forced to flee than are able to return home, resettle to a third country or integrate fully into the country where they have sought safety," UNHCR's Filippo Grandi said on Sunday.
"In other words, forced displacement is outpacing solutions for those on the run," Grandi added in his message on World Refugee Day 2022. ■