A total of 120 million people live forced by war, violence and persecution, the United Nations said June 13, branding the number that continues to increase as “a terrible indictment of the world”.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says forced displacement globally has once again broken records, with conflicts in places like Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar forcing more people to flee their homes.
The global displaced population is now equal to that of Japan, it said in a statement.
“Conflict remains a huge mass driver,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters.
At the end of last year, 117.3 million people were displaced, UNHCR said in a report.
And by the end of April, that number had grown, with an estimated 120 million people worldwide living in displacement.
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That number is up from 110 million last year, and has risen for 12 years in a row — nearly tripling since 2012 amid a combination of new and mutating crises and a failure to address long-standing problems, UNHCR said.
Mr. Grandi said AFP he had been surprised at the high displacement figure when he took the job eight years ago.
Since then it has “more than doubled”, he said, describing this as a “terrible indictment of the world”.
The numbers will continue to rise
Mr. Grandi showed the increase in the crisis that can be felt and also highlighted how climate change affects population movements and causes conflicts.
UNHCR last year declared 43 states of emergency in 29 countries – more than four times the total just a few years ago, he told reporters.
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In particular, Mr. Grandi noted “the manner in which conflicts are carried out … with complete disregard” of international law, and “often with the specific aim of terrorizing people”.
“It’s definitely a strong contributor to more displacement.”
Mr. Grandi admits now there seems little hope of bucking the trend.
“Unless there is a change in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see the figures continue to rise,” he said.
Of the 117.3 million displaced by the end of 2023, 68.3 million people are displaced within their own countries, Thursday’s report showed.
The number of refugees and others in need of international protection rose to 43.4 million, he said.
UNHCR refutes the perception that all refugees and other migrants go to rich countries.
“The majority of refugees are hosted in neighboring countries, with 75 percent living in low- and middle-income countries that together generate less than 20 percent of world income,” he said.
‘Human tragedy’
Sudan’s civil war has been a key factor driving the numbers.
Since fighting broke out in April 2023 between rival generals, more than nine million more people have been displaced, and nearly 11 million Sudanese were uprooted by the end of 2023, UNHCR said.
The number is still increasing.
Mr. Grandi pointed to many still fleeing to neighboring Chad, which has received about 6,00,000 Sudanese in the past 14 months.
“Hundreds and hundreds are crossing every day from one devastated country to one of the poorest countries in the world,” he said. AFP.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar, millions more were also displaced last year by violent fighting.
And in the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates 1.7 million people — 75% of the population — have been displaced by the war sparked eight months ago by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Regarding the raging war in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN estimates that about 7,50,000 people were newly displaced in the country last year, with a total of 3.7 million people displaced in the country by the end of 2023. .
The number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers increased by more than 2,75,000 to six million, he said.
Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 13.8 million people forcibly displaced within and outside the country, UNHCR said.
