Historic mass migrations

Unprecedented waves of migration are affecting the world today with record numbers of people escaping war-torn regions, poverty, persecution and natural disasters.

One of the latest migrant crises is from Myanmar, where nearly 520,000 Muslim Rohingyas have fled an army crackdown in Rakhine state since late August and entered Bangladesh.

That influx of people is just a fraction of the record 65.6 million people who were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced around the world by the end of 2016, according to the UN refugee agency.

The growth was driven mainly by the war in Syria along with other conflicts in the region, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa including Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.

Here are some of the other mass migrations since World War II.

1947: India and Pakistan -

The end of British rule in the India sub-continent in 1947 results in the creation of two independent states: mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

The partition is painful and violent, leading to one of the biggest mass migrations of all time as Muslims flee India for Pakistan and Hindus quit Pakistan for India.

Nearly 15 million people cross borders and at least one million die along the way.

1948: Palestinian exodus of Israel -

The nation of Israel is created within Palestine in May 1948. More than 760,000 Palestinians are expelled from their homes or flee.

Including their descendants, the number of displaced Palestinians is estimated to have reached five million, most of them in countries in the region.

1962: Algerian settlers -

After the seven-year French-Algerian war ends in March 1962, around one million settlers of French origin move to France as do about 60,000 Muslim Algerians who served in the French forces.

1971: Bangladesh independence -

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, is created after nine months of war in which India sides with independence fighters against Pakistan. Around 10 million people flee to India.

1975: Southeast Asia’s ‘boat people’ -

The 1975 victory of communist regimes in the former French colonies of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam leads more than three million people to quit their countries over the next two decades.

Many are forced to flee on often overcrowded boats to reach neighbouring countries and beyond.

1979: Afghan exodus -

Afghanistan, which has suffered decades of war, accounts for around 2.5 million of the world’s refugees today, the second largest group behind those from Syria, according to the UN refugee agency.

During the 10 years of the Soviet occupation from 1979, about six million Afghans flee, most of them across the border to Pakistan and Iran. A repatriation programme between 2001 and 2012 sees about 5.7 million return.

1992: Bosnian conflict -

The war between Bosnia’s Croat, Muslim and Serb population claims around 100,000 lives. By the time it ends in 1995, at least 2.5 million people have fled.

1994: Rwanda genocide -

Around 800,000 people, most of them from the Tutsi minority, are massacred between April and July 1994. About 1.7 million ethnic Hutus flee for fear of reprisals.

From 2011: Syrian crisis -

The Syrian conflict has killed more than 320,000 people and also forced more than half of the population to leave their homes.

While about 6.3 million are internally displaced, around 5.5 million are refugees in nearby countries. They account for the world’s largest group of refugees, according to the UNHCR. Nearly one million Syrians have applied for asylum in Europe.

South Sudan, war from 2013 -

The civil war in South Sudan has already left tens of thousands of people dead and more than 3.7 million displaced, many of them women and children.

More than two million are refugees and asylum seekers, according to the UNHCR, with around a million in Uganda and more than 430,000 in Sudan.