The number of forced displacements reached 110 million in May this year, the UN said on Wednesday, pointing to the conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan as contributing factors to the “largest increase in history.”
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 violation of human rights had increased. reached a record of 108.4 million, 19.1 million more than the previous year.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with other conflicts and climate change, caused “more people than ever before to be out of their homes last year, increasing the urgency for immediate and collective action to alleviate the causes and impact of displacement,” he said. continued.
The upward trajectory of forced displacement globally showed no signs of slowing down this year, UNHCR stressed, noting that “new flows” resulting from the conflict in Sudan pushed the number to 110 million displaced in May.
“These numbers show us that some people resort too quickly to conflict and are too slow to find solutions. The consequence is the devastation, displacement and anguish of millions of people who are forcibly uprooted from their homes,” he said, quoted by the statement. ., the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
Of this total, the UN agency explained, 35.3 million are refugees, that is, people who cross international borders in search of safety, while 50% -62.5 million people- have moved in their own countries because of conflict and violence.
The war in Ukraine was the main driver of displacement in 2022. The number of refugees from the country increased 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 World”. ” according to UNHCR.
“Estimates of the number of refugees from Afghanistan were also significantly higher at the end of 2022, due to revised estimates of Afghans hosted in Iran, many of whom arrived in previous years,” it added.
On the other hand, UNHCR stressed that, in the last year, funding for different situations of displacement and to support hosts “fell short of what is necessary” and “remains slow in 2023”.
“People around the world continue to show extraordinary hospitality to refugees by offering them protection and help,” Grandi added, noting, however, that “much more international support and responsibility sharing is needed, particularly with host countries. most of the world’s displaced people. .
In 2022, the document says, more than 339,000 refugees returned to 38 countries and, although the 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 to their homes in 2022, mainly in Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Ethiopia, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
At the end of 2022, an estimated 4.4 million people were stateless or of undetermined nationality, which represents 2% more than at the end of 2021, the statement concluded.
Source: TSF
