The number of forcibly displaced people reached 110 million in May this year, the UN said today, pointing to conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan as factors contributing to the “biggest increase ever”.
The report Global Trends in Forced Displacement in 2022 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) already indicated that at the end of last year the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights violations had risen. reached a record 108.4 million, 19.1 million more than last year.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with other conflicts and climate change, meant that last year “more people than ever have been away from home, heightening the urgency of collective and immediate action to alleviate the causes and consequences of displacement,” he said. he. continued.
The rising trajectory of forced displacement worldwide showed no signs of slowing down this year, the UNHCR stressed, noting that “new flows” due to the conflict in Sudan brought the number displaced to 110 million in May.
“These figures show us that some people are too quick to resort to conflict and too slow to find solutions. The result is devastation, displacement and fear for the millions of people who are forcibly displaced from their homes.”said, quoted in the statement, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
Of this total, the UN agency explained, 35.3 million are refugees, meaning people who cross international borders to seek safety, while 50% – 62.5 million people – are displaced as a result of the conflict and violence affected in their own country.
The war in Ukraine was the leading cause of displacement in 2022. The number of refugees from the country rose from 27,300 at the end of 2021 to 5.7 million at the end of 2022, “representing the fastest influx of refugees since World War II,” according to UNHCR.
“Estimates of the number of refugees from Afghanistan were also significantly higher at the end of 2022, reflecting revised estimates of the number of Afghans hosted in Iran, many of whom arrived in previous years,” he added.
On the other hand, UNHCR stressed that funding for various displacement situations and to support hosts in the past year “has not met what is needed”, and “remains slow in 2023”.
“People around the world continue to show extraordinary hospitality to refugees by offering protection and assistance”added Grandi, noting, however, that “a lot more international support and shared responsibility is needed, especially with the countries hosting the most displaced people in the world.”
In 2022, the document said, more than 339,000 refugees returned to 38 countries and, while numbers were lower than in previous years, there were significant voluntary returns in countries such as Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Syria and South Sudan. Meanwhile, 5.7 million internally displaced persons returned home in 2022, mainly in Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Ethiopia, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
An estimated 4.4 million people were stateless or of undetermined nationality by the end of 2022, up 2% from the end of 2021, the statement concluded.
Source: DN
