UN REPORT SAYS 68 MILLION ARE REFUGEES AND THE WORLD IS STRUGGLING TO COPE WITH THE CRISIS
An average of 44,000 people each day were displaced last year and resources to help them are dwindling
More than 68 million people worldwide are displaced after fleeing war and persecution, with 16.2 million fleeing their homes in the past year alone, a UN report published yesterday shows.
The annual figures showed that more than half of those displaced – which includes asylum seekers, refugees and those displaced in their own countries – were children.
“We are at a watershed where success in managing forced displacement globally requires a new and far more comprehensive approach so that countries and communities aren’t left dealing with this alone,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
About 70 per cent of the displaced come from 10 countries, Mr Grandi said before the launch of the annual Global
Trends report.
“If there were solutions to conflicts in those 10 countries, or in some of them at least, that huge figure could start going down instead of rising every year,” he said.
Mr Grandi called for greater political will to halt the crises driving so many from their homes.
The report, released on the eve of World Refugee Day, said two thirds of all refugees came from five countries.
Syria led with 6.3 million refugees dispersed outside its borders, followed by Afghanistan with 2.6 million, South Sudan with 2.4 million, Myanmar with 1.2 million and Somalia with nearly a million.
Along with 25.4 million refugees, another 43.1 million people are displaced within their country. Worldwide, one person in every 110 is displaced from their home.
While five million people returned to their country of origin last year, an average of 44,000 were displaced every day.
The number of the world’s forcibly displaced people last year was about the same as the population of Thailand.
The UN agency said the figures debunked a flawed perception that the refugee crisis had disproportionately affected developed countries in the “Global North”.
In contrast, 85 per cent of refugees are living in developing countries, many of which are “desperately poor”.
The new figures follow a warning from Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actress and special envoy for the UN agency, of a funding shortfall for work in Syria.
Jolie spoke on Monday after touring Domiz Camp, home to 33,000 Syrian refugees, near the town of Dohuk in northern Iraq. She said that the agency’s appeal for Syrian refugees was hugely underfunded.
Funding received by the agency to help refugees from the Syrian conflict fell sharply this year compared with last year, with only 50 per cent of the funds it requested of donors being offered.
“There are terrible human consequences,” Jolie said. “When there is even not the bare minimum of aid, refugee families cannot receive adequate medical treatment.”
The Syrian crisis is now also in a phase of “displacement of the displaced”, said the head of Doctors without Borders in northern Syria, Brian Moller.
“Syria also hosts about 450,000 Palestinian refugees,” said Mr Moller, who has been in the country since 2012.
“Due to the dynamics of the security context, half of those have now been displaced.”
He said people needed to feel safe to return home and to return their lives to normal.
“I don’t think Syria is ever going to be same again after this war,” Mr Moller said. “I think that’s a common consensus among the people who are living and working here.
“Under these conditions it’s going to require a lot of work and will take a lot longer than the war has lasted.”
He said calls for diplomatic solutions to end the crisis have largely failed: “The only resolution that Syria is going to find is a military solution.”
Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide for the fourth year running. At the end of last year, 3.5 million refugees, mostly Syrian, were living in the country.
The United States received the most new individual applications for asylum last year, almost 332,000. Germany was second with more than 198,000.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council who once led the UN humanitarian aid agency, said co-operation between countries and diplomacy for peace were in deep crisis.
“International responsibility-sharing for displaced people has utterly collapsed,” Mr Egeland said. “Rich countries are building walls against families fleeing war, at the same time as less money is available for aid to people in conflict areas.”
He said leaders in many European countries were shutting their borders as part of their own exclusion policies.
“We have to end this race to the bottom and rather let us be inspired by generous recipient countries such as Uganda, where vulnerable refugees are being protected,” Mr Egeland said.
Responsibility-sharing for displaced people has utterly collapsed. Rich countries are building walls against families JAN EGELAND Norwegian Refugee Council
They fled war and persecution, leaving everything behind to protect the lives and futures of their families. Their resilience should be a source of inspiration to us all. And yet no single group has been so consistently failed by the world as refugees, whose plight is remembered today on World Refugee Day. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a record 68.5 million people are currently displaced after fleeing war, violence and persecution. That is why the resolution adopted on Monday by the UAE Cabinet to allow those fleeing wars and natural disasters to remain in this country for a year offers a message that is as powerful as it is rare. Part of the UAE’s drive to promote global peace and security, it will lend support to those rendered homeless by forces far larger than themselves, whatever their country of origin. The UAE is already home to about 200 nationalities but against a backdrop of anti-refugee sentiment sweeping the globe, the clear commitment to refugees is praiseworthy.
From South Sudan to Myanmar and Syria, 16.2m people were newly displaced last year, equivalent to more than 44,000 per day. Inaction by the powerful in the face of their plight has seen refugee numbers rise consecutively for five years. It is a tragic indictment of our world; more prosperous than ever and yet totally incapable of – or unwilling to – care for the needy. On today of all days, the UAE’s example should inspire other nations to act with compassion and humanity.
The plight of refugees does not end at the point of departure. They are forced to settle in unfamiliar lands, where they are often met with suspicion or even outright hostility. The recent
Aquarius affair – when 629 migrants were turned away by both Italy and Malta before being welcomed by Spain – is evidence of that. While a similar mindset has emerged in Hungary, Austria and even the UK, the problem is not just a European one. US President Donald Trump on Monday stated that America “will not be a refugee holding facility”. In the case of Syrians, newly introduced Law 10 is on track to dispossess thousands of displaced Syrians, who will now be required to prove ownership before they can return. Those who abuse refugees in word or deed often overlook an essential truth: that most want only to return safely home. The UAE cabinet’s resolution is rare in acknowledging that fact. It allows the vulnerable to begin their recovery in a peaceful and stable environment and to plan their ultimate return home.