At least 117.3 million people, or one in every 69 individuals worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to a report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today.
Forced displacement as a result of conflict and violence, persecution and human rights violations continued to rise in the first four months of 2024 and is expected to exceed 120 million by the end of April 2024.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “Behind these stark and growing numbers are countless human tragedies. This suffering should galvanize the international community to act urgently to combat the root causes of forced displacement.”
Of the 117.3 million forcibly displaced people, 68.3 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or other crises, such as Gaza, where the UN estimates that about 75 percent of the population, or more than 1, 7 million people have been displaced by Israel’s ongoing attack. .
The number of refugees crossing international borders in 2023 increased by seven percent to 43.4 million. The increase is driven by displacement in Sudan and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and other regions.
The number of asylum seekers – people seeking protection in another country due to persecution or fear of harm in their home country – waiting for a decision was 6.9 million, a 26 percent increase over the previous year. last year.
The rise of refugees and displaced people
In 1951, the UN established the Refugee Convention to protect the rights of refugees in Europe after World War II. In 1967, the convention was expanded to address displacement in the rest of the world.
When the Refugee Convention was born, there were 2.1 million refugees. In 1980, the number of refugees registered by the UN exceeded 10 million for the first time. Wars in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s caused the number of refugees to double to 20 million in 1990.
The number of refugees remained fairly consistent over the next two decades.
However, the U.S. invasion Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, along with civil wars in South Sudan and Syria, resulted in the number of refugees exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021.
The war in Ukraine, which began in 2022, has led to one of the fastest-growing refugee crises since World War II, with 5.7 million people forced to flee Ukraine in less than a year. As of late 2023, six million Ukrainians remain forcibly displaced.
In 2023, the conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces increased the number of refugees to 1.5 million. Before the war, Sudan welcomed many Syrian refugees. When the war began, the number of Syrian refugees in Sudan fell from 93,500 in 2022 to 26,600 in 2023, as many left for other countries. Thousands of people continue to be displaced daily, more than a year after the conflict began.
More recently, Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip has had a devastating impact on the Palestinian population. UNRWA estimates that between October and December 2023, up to 1.7 million people – more than 75 percent of the population – have been displaced within the Gaza Strip, with many forced to flee multiple times.
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely dire, with all 2.3 million inhabitants facing food insecurity and the threat of famine.
Where do refugees come from?
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of all refugees came from just five countries: Afghanistan (6.4 million), Syria (6.4 million), Venezuela (6.1 million), Ukraine (6 million) and Palestine (6 millions).
Under international law, refugees are people who are forced to flee their countries of origin to escape persecution or a serious threat to their life, limb or freedom.
Who welcomes the most refugees?
Almost 70 percent of refugees and other people in need of international protection lived in countries neighboring their countries of origin.
Globally, the largest refugee populations are hosted by Iran (3.8 million), Turkey (3.3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Germany (2.6 million) and Pakistan (2 million).
Almost all refugees in Iran and Pakistan are Afghans, while the majority of refugees in Turkey are Syrians.
Over the past decade, the number of refugees has increased in these main host countries, except in Turkey, where the number has fallen by 14 percent since 2021.
Germany is the only major host country that does not share borders with the main refugee source countries. The majority of refugees in Germany at the end of the year came from Ukraine (1.1 million), Syria (705,800), Afghanistan (255,100) and Iraq (146,500).
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
