In 2013, globally, 232 million people migrated. This figure represents about 3.2 per cent of the world population. According to the BBC: ‘Over the past 15 years, the number of people crossing borders in search of a better life has been rising steadily. At the start of the twenty-first century, one in every 35 people is an international migrant.’
504,210 people lodged asylum claims in the EU between January and August 2015. That’s the equivalent of 2,000 migrants arriving in Europe every day. (Frontex)
The number of people living in the UK who were born in another country is currently about 8 million. (The Migration Observatory)
In the year ending March 2015, 636,000 people immigrated to the UK and an estimated 307,000 people emigrated from the UK; a net migration figure of 331,000. This compares with a net figure of 210,000 incoming for the year ending September 2013 and 320,000 incoming for the year ending June (Office for National Statistics)
The number of people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced due to conflict or persecution is 59.5 million. This figure includes 38.2 million people who were forcibly displaced within their own country (known as internally displaced people, IDPs). (UNHCR, 2014)
1.2 million children are trafficked every year. (UNICEF)
The most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation.
An estimated 20.9 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide, of which 9.2 million are estimated to be trafficking victims. (International Labour Organisation)
At the 13th Economic Forum in Prague in May 2005, Prof Norman Myers of Oxford University said: ‘When global warming takes hold there could be as many as 200 million people [displaced] by disruptions of monsoon systems and other rainfall regimes, by droughts of unprecedented severity and duration, and by sea-level rise and coastal flooding.’