UN Report: 117.3 million forcibly displaced worldwide last Year
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Geneva: The United Nations refugee agency has released a report revealing that as many as 117.3 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes by the end of last year. The report warned that without significant political changes, these numbers could continue to rise.
“These are refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, people being forced away by conflict, by persecution, by different and increasingly complex forms of violence,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The number of people forcibly displaced has been gradually increasing each year for the last twelve years. “Conflict remains a very, very deep driver of displacement,” UNHCR stated in its report on global trends in forced displacement.
The UNHCR reported that forced displacement continued into 2024, with the numbers surpassing 120 million by the end of April. “Unless there is a shift in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see that figure continuing to go up,” Grandi said, referring to the risk of new conflicts.
The report also highlighted the displacement emerging from conflicts as a major concern. Grandi referred to the war in Sudan as “one of the most catastrophic ones,” yet it has received less attention than other conflicts.
Following the civil unrest in Sudan, about 9 million people have been internally displaced, and another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan, Grandi noted. “People are arriving in the hundreds every day,” he said, referring to the influx of people seeking safety in Chad. In Gaza, Israel’s artillery intervention and ground campaign have displaced around 1.7 million people – nearly 80 percent of the Palestinian enclave’s population, many of them multiple times.
Grandi warned that potential crossings of Gazans into Egypt from the southern border town of Rafah to escape Israel’s military offensive would be catastrophic. “Another refugee crisis outside Gaza would be catastrophic on all levels, including because we have no guarantee that the people will be able to return to Gaza one day,” Grandi said.