Sunday, 13 Oct, 2024
It implies that one in every 78 people on the Earth has been forced to leave their homes to seek safety and shelter
Imagine being forced to flee your home, leaving behind everything you’ve built and worked for, knowing you may never be able to return. This is a reality for 100 million people around the world. In its latest Global Trends report, published by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the total number of people displaced globally crossed the 100 million mark in May 2022. It implies that one in every 78 people on the Earth has been forced to leave their homes to seek safety and shelter. This is more than double the 42.7 million people who remained forcibly displaced a decade ago and the most since World War II. The war in Ukraine has already added around 7 million displaced people.
According to the report, at the end of 2021, the total number of people worldwide who were forced to flee their homes due to conflicts, violence, fear of persecution and human rights violations was 89.3 million. Out of the 89.3 million, 27.1 million are refugees, 53.2 million are Internally Displaced People (IDP), 4.6 million are asylum seekers and another 4.4 million are Venezuelans who are displaced abroad. Just five countries produce 68% of all refugees displaced abroad: the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar.
Over the span of the year, the number of refugees worldwide increased from 20.7 in 2020 to 21.3 million at the end of 2021, more than double the 10.5 million a decade ago. Those forcibly displaced constitute 1 out of 88 in the world population by end of 2021, while in 2012, it was 1 in 167. This implies that the growth of the displaced population has outpaced the growth of the world population, highlighting the severity of the problem.
Around 82% of internally displaced people and 67% of refugees are from countries with food crises. For instance, in Afghanistan, 55% of the population did not have enough to eat each day. Nearly 40% of the refugees and asylum seekers are hosted in countries with food crises.
UNHCR reports that low- and middle-income countries housed the most displaced people in 2021, taking more than four in five refugees. With 3.7 million displaced people now within its borders, Turkey hosts twice as many refugees as Colombia, the next highest host country, with 1.7 million people. Colombia is followed by Germany, Pakistan, and Uganda.
