At the end of 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide at 117.3 million people. In May 2024, there are already 120 million. It is a trend that has been increasing without interruption for 12 years and that in 2024 has been exacerbated by several new wars, such as those in Sudan and Gaza, but also by others that are not so wars, such as the entrenched conflict in Syria or that of Myanmar. This is the main complaint of the latest annual report on global trends in forced displacement published this Thursday by the UN agency, and in whose pages it calls for a solution that is as simple to propose as it is difficult to achieve: peace.
Raouf Mazou is UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner for Operations and summarizes in just a few sentences how humanity has reached this situation: “We see more and more conflicts. They are resolved less and less because the mechanisms that exist to resolve them do not work. As a result, the numbers of forced displacement increase,” he laments during a video call interview.
As far as the number of armed conflicts is concerned, the data attests to this increase: also in 2023, the world reached the highest peak since World War II, with 56 active and 92 countries involved, according to the latest data from the Institute for Economics and Peace, published last Tuesday. The frequency, scope, duration and intensity of conflicts are closely related to the number of people forced to flee each year, both within their own countries and to other countries.
If these 120 million refugees, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers and other people in need of international protection decided to come together in one country, they would form the twelfth largest in the world, with a population similar to that of Japan or twice that of France. And it would be very young, since 40% of them are under 18 years old.
Join Morning Express to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
The UNHCR report details the figures of different population groups who share having had to flee their homes due to force majeure, mainly due to violence, conflicts and also climate disasters. The largest group is that of internally displaced people: 68.3 million people who moved within their own countries only for reasons related to wars, mainly in Sudan, and 76 million if those who did so due to natural disasters are added. . Refugees at the end of the year were 43.4 million, mainly from Sudan. Another 5.8 million were in need of international protection, predominantly Venezuelans. Also included in the count are six million under the mandate of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and 4.4 million stateless people.
The UNHCR report also reveals that the number of new individual asylum applications increased in the last year to 3.6 million. However, there was a 17% decrease in the total number of those seeking international protection in 2023, to 5.6 million, mainly due to the lower number of refugees from Ukraine applying for and obtaining temporary protection, especially in countries Europeans. The total number of asylum seekers awaiting a decision at the end of the year rose by 26% to 6.9 million, as new individual asylum applications outnumbered decisions on them.
The United Nations appeals to the responsibility and solidarity of all countries to support the financial cost of protecting all these people, and especially that of the most developed ones, which only host 25% of the world’s refugee population. The other 75% have stayed within their country or in neighboring countries because they hope to be able to return as soon as possible. The result is that in the end it is the low-income countries that receive the most refugees, because they are also where armed conflicts are worsening. “When you receive refugees, you receive them on behalf of the rest of the world, so the entire international community has to contribute, including the richest countries,” says Mazou.
The Sudan crisis is the example: since April 2023, more than 7.1 million new internal displacements and more than 1.9 million external displacements have been recorded. By the end of 2023, a total of 10.8 million Sudanese people had been displaced inside and outside the country, and neighboring nations with their own crises such as South Sudan have received much of those flows. “Numerous appeals and international conferences have been made, but South Sudan has only received 16% of the financing it needs to care for the displaced population,” recalls the UNHCR representative, who also demands that the aid not only be for the urgent humanitarian assistance, but also for the future development of displaced communities. “If you are displaced after five years, you don’t want to continue receiving humanitarian assistance. Means must be provided so that the population can feed themselves and have a normal life. Whatever or job they were doing, they should be able to continue doing it in the country that welcomed you. That is where solidarity is necessary,” he says.
For Filippo Grandi, UNHCR High Commissioner, it is time for the parties in conflict to respect international law and the basic laws of war. “The reality is that without greater cooperation and joint efforts to address conflict, human rights violations or the climate crisis, displacement numbers will continue to rise, leading to more suffering and costly humanitarian responses,” he indicated during the press conference to present the report.
Seven crises behind the numbers
- Palestine: At the end of 2023, two months since the start of the Israeli attacks, there were six million Palestinian refugees under UNRWA mandate, of whom 1.7 million were in Gaza. UNRWA estimates that 75% of the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants will be forcibly displaced by 2023.
- Syria: It is the largest displacement crisis in the world, with 13.8 million people forcibly displaced inside and outside the country. 7.2 million remain displaced inside Syria, many of them in critical humanitarian situations. Another 6.5 million Syrian refugees and asylum seekers are spread across the rest of the world.
- Sudan: The armed conflict that began in April 2023 has caused one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. More than 7.1 million people have been forcibly displaced, and 1.9 million more have escaped to other countries.
- Myanmar: It is one of the deepest and most complex humanitarian crises since the military seized power in 2021. Three million people are displaced within Myanmar, and 1.3 million have fled outside the country. Almost a million people are stateless Rohingya, stateless. They live as refugees in Bangladesh and mostly depend on humanitarian aid.
- Afghanistan: The economic, humanitarian and human rights situation has deteriorated significantly since the Taliban regime took power in 2021, particularly for women and girls. More than 10 million Afghans remain displaced and almost half of the country’s population of 40 million faces severe acute food insecurity.
- Ukraine: Two years after the Russian invasion, attacks and bombings continue to destroy homes and claim lives. Some 6.5 million Ukrainian refugees remain far from their homes, and 3.7 million are internally displaced.
- DR Congo: The resurgence of fighting in the east of the country has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis; 7.9 million Congolese remain displaced, most in a critical humanitarian situation.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
.
.
_
