“It’s a record that should never have existed”: For the first time, according to the UN, one hundred million people are fleeing the world. They are fleeing wars, violent conflicts and hunger.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and other deadly conflicts have pushed the number of people forcibly displaced worldwide to more than 100 million for the first time on record. This was announced by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Geneva. “One hundred million is a blatant number – sobering and alarming at the same time. It is a record that should never have been,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. The number is a wake-up call that conflicts must be resolved and prevented.
According to new information from the UNHCR, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide had risen to 90 million by the end of 2021. The reason for this was, among other things, waves of violence or conflicts in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition, the war in Ukraine this year has displaced eight million people within the country and more than six million have fled Ukraine.
The number of forcibly displaced persons reportedly includes refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as 53.2 million people who had to leave their homes within the borders of their countries.
In addition to wars and conflicts, it is above all famine, extreme weather conditions and the consequences of the climate crisis such as drought, storms or floods that cause people to leave their homes. Added to this are the economic hardships caused by the pandemic, which has made poverty worse in many parts of the world. Often, according to UNHCR, it is a combination of these factors that drives people to flee.
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