The United Nations Refugee Agency announced today that the number of forcibly displaced persons reached a record 117.3 million by the end of last year, warning that the number could rise even further without major global political changes.
“These are refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, persons forced to leave due to conflict, persecution, various and increasingly complex forms of violence,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Conflict remains a very, very deep driver of displacement,” he stressed.
In its report on global trends in forced displacement, UNHCR stated that over the past 12 years there has been an annual increase in the number of forcibly displaced persons.
UNHCR estimates that forced displacement continued to increase in the first four months of 2024, and that the number of displaced persons likely exceeded 120 million by the end of April.
“Unless there is a change in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see that number continuing to rise,” Grandi said, referring to the risk of new conflicts.
Conflicts that have led to displacement include the war in Sudan, which Grandi described as “one of the most catastrophic” despite attracting less attention than other crises. More than nine million people have been internally displaced, and another two million have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, Grandi said.
Photo: AP
