C T Online Desk: A record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, the United Nations said Wednesday, branding the huge upsurge an “indictment” of the world.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and the fighting in Sudan have pushed the total number of refugees forced to seek shelter abroad, and those displaced within their own countries, to an unprecedented level, said UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
At the end of last year, 108.4 million people were displaced, UNHCR said in its flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement.
The number was up 19.1 million from the end of 2021 — the biggest-ever increase since the records began back in 1975.
Since then, the eruption of the conflict in Sudan has triggered further displacement, pushing the global total to an estimated 110 million by May.
“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,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told a press conference in Geneva.
“It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” he said.
– Numbers likely to increase –
Of the 2022 global total, 35.3 million were refugees who fled abroad, with 62.5 million being internally displaced.
There were 5.4 million asylum-seekers and a further 5.2 million other people — predominantly from Venezuela — needing international protection.
