The number of forced displaced people reached 110 million by May this year, the UN said today, pointing to conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan as factors contributing to the “largest ever increase”.
The report Global Trends in Forced Displacement in 2022 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) already indicated that by the end of last year, the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights violations had reached a record 108.4 million, 19.1 million more than the previous year.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with other conflicts and climate change, meant that last year “more people than ever remained far from their homes, increasing the urgency for immediate, collective action to alleviate the causes and impact of displacement,” it continued.
The upward trajectory of forced displacement globally has shown no signs of slowing down this year, UNHCR stressed, noting that “new flows” arising from the conflict in Sudan have pushed the figure to 110 million displaced people by May.
“These figures show us that some people turn too quickly to conflict and are too slow to find solutions. The consequence is devastation, displacement and distress for the millions of people who are forcibly uprooted from their homes,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, quoted by the statement.
Of this total, the UN agency explained, 35.3 million are refugees, that is, people who cross international borders to seek safety, while 50% – 62.5 million people – have become displaced in their own countries due to conflict and violence.
The war in Ukraine was the main driver of displacement in 2022. The number of refugees from the country increased from 27,300 at the end of 2021 to 5.7 million at the end of 2022, “representing the fastest refugee flow since World War II,” still according to UNHCR.
“Estimates of the number of refugees from Afghanistan were also significantly higher at the end of 2022, due to revised estimates of Afghans hosted in Iran, with many of these arriving in previous years,” it added.
On the other hand, UNHCR stressed that in the past year, funding for different displacement situations and to support hosts “fell short of what is needed”, and “remains slow in 2023”.
“People around the world continue to show extraordinary hospitality towards refugees by offering protection and assistance,” Grandi added, noting, however, that “much more international support and responsibility-sharing is needed, especially with the countries hosting the majority of the world’s displaced people.”
In 2022, the document noted, more than 339,000 refugees returned to 38 countries and, although the figures were lower than in previous years, there were significant voluntary returns in countries such as Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Syria and South Sudan. Meanwhile, 5.7 million IDPs returned home in 2022, mainly in Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Ethiopia, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the end of 2022, an estimated 4.4 million people were stateless or had undetermined nationality, representing 2% more than at the end of 2021, the statement concluded.
*With Lusa
