The world exceeds one hundred million forcibly displaced people for the first time

UNHCR describes 'staggering' figure as 'a call to action'

MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

For the first time, there are more than 100 million people who are currently in a situation of forcibly displaced by the armed conflict, violence, attacks against Human Rights or persecution of any kind; an "astounding" figure in the words of the head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, which should be an immediate "call to action".

The war in Ukraine has finished propelling a figure "as alarming as it is instructive in equal parts" and a "record that should never have been broken", according to Grandi.

In the words of the high commissioner, these hundred million displaced people must be "a call to action to resolve and prevent these destructive conflicts, end persecution and address the underlying causes that force innocent people to flee their homes."

According to new data from UNHCR, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide rose to 90 million by the end of 2021, fueled by new waves of violence or protracted conflict in countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Dominican Republic. Democratic of the Congo.

To this it was necessary to add later the effect of the war on war in Ukraine, which began in February and has displaced eight million within the country, to which must be added more than six million movements of refugees who have left the country. In total, UNHCR recalls, this number of displaced people is equivalent to the fourteenth most populous country in the world.

The data includes, the UN agency points out, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as the 53.2 million people displaced within its borders by the conflict, according to a recent report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). ).

"The international response to people fleeing the war in Ukraine has been overwhelmingly positive," Grandi added, adding that "compassion lives on."

"We need a similar mobilization for all crises in the world but, ultimately, humanitarian aid is a palliative, not a cure," he added.

"To reverse this trend," Grandi believes that "the only answer is peace and stability, so that innocent people are not forced to bet between grave danger at home or precarious flight and exile."

UNHCR will publish its annual Global Trends Report on June 16, which outlines a full set of global, national and regional data on forced displacement for 2021, as well as more limited updates to April 2022 and details on returns and solutions.