UN: 120 million forcibly displaced people around the world, a record

The world had a record number of 120 million forcibly displaced people at the end of April, a number which continues to increase and “a terrible indictment on the state of the world”, denounced the UN on Thursday.

The wars in Gaza, Sudan and Burma have significantly contributed to increasing the number of people forced to flee their places of residence for more than a year, underlined the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in its annual report.

“War remains the major driver of mass displacement,” explained UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi during a press briefing in Geneva. At the end of last year, 117.3 million people were displaced. This is almost 10 million more than a year earlier and marks 12 consecutive years of increase.

“Terrible indictment”

There are also almost three times as many people forcibly displaced as in 2012 and the number of displaced people is now equivalent to the population of Japan. Filippo Grandi told AFP that he saw in this number a “terrible indictment on the state of the world”.

There is a palpable increase in crises and climate change is further stoking the embers of conflict across the world. Last year, UNHCR declared 43 emergencies in 29 countries, more than four times what was the rule just a few years ago, Grandi insisted.

He deplored “the way in which conflicts are conducted… in total disregard” of international law, and “often with the specific aim of terrorizing populations”, which “of course” contributes to further strengthening the phenomenon. Filippo Grandi acknowledged that there currently appeared to be little hope of reversing the trend.

68.3 million internally displaced people

“Unless there is a change in international geopolitics, unfortunately I see this number continuing to rise,” he said. Of the 2023 global total, 68.3 million people were internally displaced, according to the report released Thursday.

The number of refugees and others in need of international protection rose to 43.4 million, the statement said. The agency once again attempted to refute the false perception that all refugees and other migrants are heading to rich countries.

“The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighboring their own, with 75% residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20% of global income,” the report says.

From country at war to poor country

The civil war raging in Sudan since April 2023 has displaced more than nine million additional people, leaving nearly 11 million Sudanese uprooted by the end of 2023, UNHCR said.

And the numbers continue to rise. Filippo Grandi stressed that many people continue to flee to neighboring Chad, which has hosted some 600,000 Sudanese over the past 14 months.

“Hundreds and hundreds of people cross a devastated country every day to go to one of the poorest countries in the world,” he told AFP. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burma, millions more people were also displaced last year by heavy fighting.

Syria, the first world crisis

And in the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates that 1.7 million people – 75% of the population – have been displaced since the war launched by Israel in retaliation for the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7.

As for Ukraine, which is battling the Russian invasion, around 750,000 people were newly internally displaced last year, with a total of 3.7 million internally displaced people registered in the country. end of 2023. And the number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers increased by more than 275,000 to reach six million, according to the press release.

Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 13.8 million people still forcibly displaced within and outside the country, UNHCR said.

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