102 Million displaced globally — UNHCR report
The number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights abuses stood at a record 108.4 million at the end of 2022.
Advertisement
This is an increase of 19.1 million over the previous year’s record, making it the biggest-ever increase, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has said.
UNHCR’s flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2022, explained that the upward trajectory in global forced displacement showed no sign of slowing in 2023 as the eruption of conflict in Sudan triggered new outflows, pushing the global total to an estimated 110 million by May.
“These figures show us that some people are far too quick to rush to conflict, and way too slow to find solutions. The consequence is devastation, displacement and anguish for each of the millions of people forcibly uprooted from their homes,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said.
Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection. The refugee definition can be found in the 1951 Convention and regional refugee instruments, as well as UNHCR’s Statute.
World Refugee Day
A statement issued in Accra by the Ghana office of the UNHCR ahead of World Refugee Day to be observed on Tuesday, June 20, said the full-scale war in Ukraine, alongside conflict elsewhere and climate-driven upheaval meant that more people than ever remained uprooted from their homes last year, heightening the urgency for immediate, collective action to alleviate the causes and impact of displacement.
It said of the global total, 35.3 million were refugees, people who crossed an international border to find safety, while a greater share — 62.5 million people representing 58 per cent — were displaced in their home countries due to conflict and violence.
The war in Ukraine, it said, was the top driver of displacement in 2022, pointing out that the number of refugees from Ukraine soared from 27,300 at the end of 2021 to 5.7 million at the end of 2022, representing the fastest outflow of refugees anywhere since World War II.
Other Trending Stories
Estimates for the number of refugees from Afghanistan were sharply higher by the end of 2022 due to revised estimates of Afghans hosted in Iran, many having arrived in previous years.
Similarly, the statement said the report reflected upward revisions by Colombia and Peru of the number of Venezuelans, mostly categorised as “other people in need of international protection”, hosted in those countries.
Hosting refugees
The figures also confirmed that whether measured by economic means or population ratios, it remained the world’s low- and middle-income countries — not wealthy states — that hosted most displaced people.
The 46 least developed countries account for less than 1.3 per cent of global gross domestic product, yet they hosted more than 20 per cent of all refugees, while funding for the numerous displacement situations and to support hosts lagged behind needs last year, remaining sluggish in 2023 as requirements increase.
People around the world continue to show extraordinary hospitality for refugees as they extend protection and help to those in need,” Grandi added, stressing, however, that “but much more international support and more equitable responsibility sharing is required, especially with those countries that are hosting most of the world’s displaced.
Above all, much more must be done to end conflict and remove obstacles so that refugees have the viable option to return home voluntarily, safely and with dignity.
The statement said while the total figure of displaced continued to grow, the Global Trends report also showed that those forced to flee were not condemned to exile, but rather they could and do go home, voluntarily and safely.
Return of refugees
In 2022, it said over 339,000 refugees returned to 38 countries, and though was lower than the previous year, there were significant voluntary returns to South Sudan, Syria, Cameroun and Côte d’Ivoire.
It said 5.7 million internally displaced people returned in 2022, notably within Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the end of 2022, it said an estimated 4.4 million people worldwide were stateless or of undetermined nationality, two per cent more than at the end of 2021.
