Over 110 million forcibly displaced as Sudan, Ukraine wars add to world refugee crisis, says UN

Over 110 million people have been displaced from their homes worldwide, according to the UN refugee agency, which expects the ongoing crisis in Sudan to result in the largest level of global displacement ever. According to The National, citing the UNHCR report, tens of millions have been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, human rights abuses and climate change, with 70 per cent fleeing to neighbouring countries. The report said the figure represents a 21 per cent surge from 2021, marking it the largest increase ever since the records began back in 1975. “We have 110 million people that have fled because of conflict, persecution, discrimination and violence, often mixed with other motives - in particular the impact of climate change,” The National report quoted UN refugee commissioner chief Filippo Grandi as saying at a press conference in Geneva. “It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” he said. “The drivers of this increase have been the ones you can expect, but in particular, last year was the situation in Ukraine that displaced millions both inside and outside the country, and this year has been the situation in Sudan,” Grandi added. He said that according to the most recent data, more than 450,000 people — mostly residents of Sudan who are also refugees from other countries — have left the country as a result of a lack of assistance. If current patterns persist, the UN refugee chief expects that number to surpass half a million within a matter of days. The number of acutely food insecure people in Sudan is projected to increase by more than two million in the next six months, reported The National. “These figures show us that some people are far too quick to rush to conflict, and way too slow to find solutions,” Grandi said. 87 per cent refugees from 10 nations According to the report, citing the UN data, almost 87 per cent of all refugees in 2022 originated from only 10 nations, slightly exceeding the proportions observed in previous years. Estimates for the number of refugees from Afghanistan were sharply higher by the end of 2022 due to revised estimates of Afghans hosted in Iran. The war in Ukraine was the top driver of displacement in 2022. The number of refugees from Ukraine soared from 27,300 at the end of 2021 to 5.7 million at the end of 2022. Syrians constituted almost one fifth of the global refugee population, with 6.5 million Syrians seeking refuge across 131 countries. The majority, 77 per cent, found shelter in neighbouring countries including Turkey (3.5 million), Lebanon (814,700) and Jordan (660,900), added the report. Turkey hosts most refugees Turkey currently hosts the most refugees with 3.8 million people, mostly Syrians who fled the civil war, followed by Iran with 3.4 million refugees, mostly Afghans. But there are also 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees scattered across countries in Europe and beyond. The number of stateless people has also risen in 2022 to 4.4 million, according to UNHCR data, but this is believed to be an underestimate. Regarding asylum claims, the US was the country to receive the most new applications in 2022 with 730,400 claims. It’s also the nation with the largest backlog in its asylum system, Grandi said. “One of the things that needs to be done is reforming that asylum system so that it becomes more rapid, more efficient,” he said. The United States, Spain and Canada recently announced plans to create asylum processing centers in Latin America with the goal of reducing the number of people who trek their way north to the Mexico-U.S. border. As the number of asylum-seekers grows, so have the challenges facing them. “We see pushbacks. We see tougher and tougher immigration or refugee admission rules. We see in many countries the criminalization of immigrants and refugees, blaming them for everything that has happened,” Grandi said. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.