The world has 110 million people who have been forced to flee their homes, the UN recorded on Wednesday June 14, which sees this record number as an “indictment” against the state of the world. The recent fighting in Sudan has further aggravated a situation already made extraordinary in 2022 by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia or the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Never before has the total number of refugees fleeing their country and internally displaced persons reached such a high level, underlined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in its annual report. At the end of last year, 108.4 million people were displaced or refugees, UNHCR said. That was 19.1 million more people than at the end of 2021, an unprecedented increase.
And fighting between rival factions in Sudan pushed the total number of refugees and displaced to around 110 million people last May. “This is where we are today,” UNHCR boss Filippo Grandi said at a press conference in Geneva.
“An indictment of the state of our world”
“We have 110 million people who have fled because of conflict, persecution, discrimination and violence, often mixed with other motives – especially the impact of climate change,” he said. stressed, lamenting the surge since last year. “It’s an indictment of the state of our world,” Mr. Grandi said.
Of the 2022 total, 35.3 million people were refugees and 62.5 million displaced. There were also 5.4 million asylum seekers and 5.2 million others in need of international protection.
All of these people face “a more hostile environment, especially with regard to refugees, almost everywhere,” the high commissioner said. “To be a real leader is to convince your public opinion that there are people who deserve international protection,” he said. Three-quarters of refugees flee to low- and middle-income countries.
Grandi hailed the European Union’s recent progress on migration policy reform, calling it a good attempt to balance tensions around these issues and calling it “relatively fair”.
The reform provides for a system of solidarity between Member States in the care of refugees and an accelerated examination of the asylum applications of certain migrants at the borders. It still needs to be adopted by the European Parliament. According to the High Commissioner, it is necessary to start dealing with the flows of migrants seeking to come to Europe much earlier in their long journey.
“Seeking asylum is not a crime”
However, in Europe, the United Kingdom or the United States, “the door must remain open” to asylum seekers. “Asylum seekers should not be put in jail. Asking for asylum is not a crime, ”insists Mr. Grandi, denouncing in particular the plan of London to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He is also concerned about the policy of the United States in this area.
Mr. Grandi acknowledged that the organization he leads is “not in a good financial position this year”, like many other humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The global economic situation and inflation are wreaking havoc on calls for donations.
Thus, for Sudan, the UNHCR has only 16% of the money it estimates it needs and this figure drops to 13% for aid to refugees, driven out by the explosion of violence in the latter, in the host country.
Last year, more than 339,000 refugees from 38 countries returned home, while 5.7 million displaced people were able to return home. The countries hosting the most refugees are Turkey (3.6 million), Iran (3.4 million), Colombia (2.5 million), Germany (2.1 million) and Pakistan ( 1.7 million).