In September 2015, a family that had fled from Syria to Turkey as refugees attempted to cross the sea to the Greek island of Kos when their boat capsized. A 3-year-old boy who had been on board was found washed up on the shore, having drowned. Images of the body were captured on camera, and this incident was extensively reported day after day in newspapers and on television. Many people were likely shocked by the constant coverage of this news. In Syria, due to factors such as the protracted war and the activities of ISIS (the Islamic State), the number of refugees surged in 2015, and many refugees died along the way. Consequently, countries and regions they passed through or reached were forced to respond to the influx of refugees.

Starting with the news about this boy, in Japan there has been extensive coverage related to Syrian refugees and the responses of European countries that have accepted them, which may have created the impression that refugees originate in Syria and are being accepted by European countries. But does this image reflect the reality of the world’s refugee problem?

Syrian refugee camp in Jordan Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )

According to UNHCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees), the total number of people displaced worldwide reached a record high in 2015. By the end of that year, 65.3 million people had been displaced around the world; of these, 21.3 million were refugees, 40.8 million were internally displaced persons, and 3.2 million were people awaiting decisions on their asylum applications. This represented an increase of 5.3 million compared with 2014.

In this context, how are people displaced around the world—and the countries that host them—being conveyed to the Japanese public through media coverage?

Where do refugees come from, and where do they live?

So where, exactly, do the world’s refugees come from? And where do they flee to and live? (*1)

UNHCR data used to create this figure (Note 2)

As shown above, the regions accounting for the largest shares of refugee origins are Africa and the Middle East, followed by Asia. Why have so many refugees emerged from each region? According to UNHCR, looking at countries of origin for refugees in 2015 in cumulative terms, Syria ranks first, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia in third, and South Sudan in fourth. From 2014 to 2015, most of the top 10 countries of origin for refugees have consistently been major sources of refugees for the past five years.

In Syria, part of the Middle East, numerous armed groups including ISIS are active, and military interventions by countries such as Turkey, Iran, the United States, and Russia have taken place; large-scale conflict has driven the refugee flows. In Somalia, in Africa—which, along with the Middle East, accounts for a large share—years of conflict and political instability, as well as drought, have dealt heavy blows to civilians. In South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, a power struggle escalated into conflict, producing many refugees. In Afghanistan, part of Asia, the military intervention that began in 2001 by the United States and others has continued, and the Taliban—also fighting government forces—has expanded its areas of control.

Next, to which regions have refugees fled and where are they living as refugees?

UNHCR data used to create this figure (Note 2)

As this figure shows, the regions hosting the most refugees are, like the regions of origin, Africa and the Middle East, followed by Asia. Europe hosts only 11.7% of all refugees. <ahref=”http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/576408cd7/unhcr-global-trends-2015.html”>According to UNHCR, the top six refugee-hosting countries cumulatively from 2014 to the end of 2015 were Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia, and Jordan, and 86% of all refugees live in developing countries. In addition, the world’s largest refugee camp is in Uganda, Africa, <ahref=”https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/apr/03/uganda-at-breaking-point-bidi-bidi-becomes-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-south-sudan”>hosting at least 270,000 refugees from South Sudan.

What is reported in Japan?

So, in 2015, what kind of reporting on refugees appeared in Japan? First, we summarized refugee-related coverage by region in the Asahi, Mainichi, and Yomiuri newspapers. Because refugees were especially prominently covered in Japan in 2015, we use the volume of reporting from that year to explain.

As seen in this figure, more than half of the news articles about refugees concerned Europe. Articles about the Middle East—which had the largest shares both as regions of origin and as hosting regions—accounted for 19.5% of all articles, while articles about Africa accounted for only 4.6%. Even among articles discussing refugees in the Middle East and Africa, around 30% featured Europe, Japan, or other developed countries as actors.

Beyond volume, the focus of many refugee-related articles was on the situation and acceptance systems in host countries, with many headlines such as “Which country accepted refugees,” “This country or organization provided this support,” and “This country passed this law for refugee measures.”

There was only one article about refugees in Latin America. Considering that both the number of refugees originating from and hosted by this region are around 1%, this might seem like a proportionate amount of coverage. However, Colombia, a country in this region, has long been an area of conflict, and according to UNHCR, it ranks 10th as a country of origin for refugees—so it is by no means a region unrelated to refugees.

The regions highlighted by the media and the reality of refugees

As the pie charts show, when viewed by region, the shares of both countries of origin and host countries are highest in the Middle East and Africa. However, looking at coverage in the Asahi, Yomiuri, and Mainichi newspapers, more than half of the articles were related to Europe. In other words, for 2015, the Japanese media showed refugees in Europe more often than refugees elsewhere in the world who make up the vast majority. There is a large gap between the actual distribution of refugees and the volume of refugee-related coverage by region, and it seems not to reflect the reality of refugees.

GNV has already shown that poor countries and developed countries are featured at different frequencies in media coverage. For example, in the GNV article “Global poverty and Japan’s international reporting,” it is noted that in Japan’s international news, there is little coverage of poor countries and regions where poor countries are concentrated. The same appears to be true for reporting on refugees. In addition, factors such as countries with deep ties to Japan in trade or tourism, or countries that are closer to and more accessible from the media’s bureaus, are likely related to coverage volume. In this way, from among the world’s refugees, only a small portion living in Europe draws attention. Because refugee reporting is conducted from this perspective, the reality of refugees and the image of refugees in Japan may be out of sync. It is no exaggeration to say that this hinders understanding of the conditions refugees face. In this situation, can appropriate measures be taken to address the refugee issue?

Afghan refugees undergoing return procedures Photo: European Union/ECHO/Pierre Prakash/flickr ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )

Writer: Yumiko Yoshida

Graphics: Yumiko Yoshida

Note 1: The refugees discussed here are only those who have fled abroad and have been recognized as refugees in their host countries, according to UNHCR’s criteria. The number of refugees refers to the cumulative total of refugees that emerged up to 2015.

Note 2: Regional classifications follow those of UNSD (United Nations Statistics Division). Here, the Middle East (Western Asia) includes countries such as Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, and Asia includes countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.