Worldwide displacement hits all-time high as war and persecution increase

One in every one hundred twenty two humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum.

By UNHCR | eighteen June two thousand fifteen | Français

Global Trends two thousand fourteen © UNHCR

GENEVA, June eighteen (UNHCR) – Wars, conflict and persecution have compelled more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere, according to a fresh report from the UN refugee agency.

UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report: World at War, released on Thursday (June Legitimate), said that worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded. It said the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of two thousand fourteen had risen to a staggering 59.Five million compared to 51.Two million a year earlier and 37.Five million a decade ago.

The increase represents the largest leap ever seen in a single year. Moreover, the report said the situation was likely to worsen still further.

Globally, one in every one hundred twenty two humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world’s 24th thickest.

“We are witnessing a paradigm switch, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global coerced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.

Since early 2011, the main reason for the acceleration has been the war in Syria, now the world’s single-largest driver of displacement. Every day last year on average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced, a four-fold increase in just four years.

“It is horrifying that on the one arm there is more and more impunity for those embarking conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace,” Guterres added.

The UNHCR report detailed how in region after region, the number of refugees and internally displaced people is on the rise. In the past five years, at least fifteen conflicts have erupted or reignited: eight in Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, northeastern Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and this year in Burundi); three in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, and Yemen); one in Europe (Ukraine) and three in Asia (Kyrgyzstan, and in several areas of Myanmar and Pakistan).

“Few of these crises have been resolved and most still generate fresh displacement,” the report noted, adding that in two thousand fourteen only 126,800 refugees were able to come back to their home countries — the lowest number in thirty one years.

Meantime, decades-old instability and conflict in Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere means that millions of people remain on the stir or – as is increasingly common – stranded for years on the edge of society as long-term internally displaced or refugees.

One of the most latest and very visible consequences of the world’s conflicts and the terrible suffering they cause has been the dramatic growth in the numbers of refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, including on the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Aden and Crimson Sea, and in Southeast Asia.

Half of all refugees are children

The Global Trends report detailed that in two thousand fourteen alone 13.9 million people became freshly displaced – four times the number of the previous year. Worldwide there were Nineteen.Five million refugees (up from 16.7 million in 2013), 38.Two million were displaced inwards their own countries (up from 33.Three million in 2013), and 1.8 million people were awaiting the outcome of claims for asylum (against 1.Two million in 2013).

Most alarmingly, however, it displayed that over half the world’s refugees are children.

“With meaty shortages of funding and broad gaps in the global regime for protecting victims of war, people in need of compassion, aid and refuge are being abandoned,” warned Guterres. “For an age of unprecedented mass displacement, we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.”

Syria is the world’s largest producer of both internally displaced people (7.6 million) and refugees (Three.88 million at the end of 2014). Afghanistan (Two.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next fattest refugee source countries.

Almost nine out of every ten refugees (86 per cent) are in regions and countries considered economically less developed.

Conflict in Ukraine, a record 219,000 Mediterranean crossings, and the large number of Syrian refugees in Turkey – which in two thousand fourteen became the world’s top refugee-hosting nation with 1.59 million Syrian refugees at year’s end – brought enlargened public attention, both positive and negative, to questions to do with refugees.

In the EU, the largest volume of asylum applications was in Germany and Sweden. Overall, compelled displacement numbers in Europe totalled 6.7 million at the end of the year, compared to Four.Four million at the end of 2013, and with the largest proportion of this being Syrians in Turkey and Ukrainians in the Russian Federation.

Middle East and North Africa (up 19%)

Syria’s ongoing war, with 7.6 million people displaced internally, and Three.88 million people displaced into the surrounding region and beyond as refugees, has alone made the Middle East the world’s largest producer and host of compelled displacement. Adding to the high totals from Syria was a fresh displacement of least Two.6 million people in Iraq and 309,000 freshly displaced in Libya.

Africa’s numerous conflicts, including in Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, together produced immense coerced displacement totals in 2014, on a scale only marginally lower than in the Middle East.

In all, sub-Saharan Africa eyed Three.7 million refugees and 11.Four million internally displaced people, Four.Five million of whom were freshly displaced in 2014. The seventeen per cent overall increase excludes Nigeria, as methodology for counting internal displacement switched during two thousand fourteen and it could not be reliably calculated. Ethiopia substituted Kenya as the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and the fifth largest worldwide.

Long one of the world’s major displacement producing regions, the number of refugees and internally displaced people in Asia grew by thirty one per cent in two thousand fourteen to nine million people. Continuing displacement was also seen in and from Myanmar in 2014, including of Rohingya from Rakhine state and in the Kachin and Northern Shan regions. Iran and Pakistan remained two of the world’s top four refugee hosting countries.

The Americas also witnessed a rise in coerced displacement. The number of Colombian refugees dropped by 36,300 to 360,300 over the year, albeit mainly because of a revision in the numbers of refugees reported by Venezuela. Colombia continued, nonetheless to have one of the world’s largest internally displaced populations, reported at six million people and with 137,000 Colombians being freshly displaced during the year. With more people fleeing gang violence or other forms of persecution in Central America, the United States eyed 36,800 more asylum claims than in 2013, signifying growth of forty four per cent.

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