Week in charts: Where do refugees seek safety?

Editor’s note: The “Week in charts” condenses the weekly edition of The Economist in five pithy charts

THE WORLD has 82.4m forcibly displaced people, a record high. About 30m of them are refugees or asylum-seekers. As the UN Refugee Convention turns 70, it is more needed than ever. Many flee political repression, such as the Belarusian exiles escaping the country’s gangster dictatorship or the approximately 230,000 Burmese who left their homes after Myanmar’s military coup in February. The vast majority of refugees are in the developing world, often ending up in underfunded camps. Some head for rich countries. Attempts to discourage their arrival through draconian policy have had limited effect. Yet politicians should not only remember their obligations under the convention, but take pride in accepting those huddled masses. Freedom is a precious gift—more than 100 years after 300 Russian families came to Uruguay to escape religious persecution, few are keen to return to live under Vladmir Putin’s regime.