According to a UN report released on Friday, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused global migration to drop by nearly 30 percent, with around two million fewer people than predicted migrating between 2019 and 2020.
The report, “International Migration 2020”, showed that two-thirds of registered migrants lived in just 20 countries. The United States was at the top of the list, with 51 million international migrants in 2020.
Next on the list was Germany with 16 million migrants, followed by Saudi Arabia with 13 million, Russia with 12 million and Britain with 9 million.
Furthermore, while 281 million people were living outside their country of origin in 2020, refugees account for some 12 percent of all international migrants, with around 80 percent hosted in low and middle-income countries.