Around 8 crore people displaced worldwide: UN

An unprecedented 7.95 crore people became victims of displacement due to some incidents like conflict, persecution or events seriously disturbing public order as of the end of 2019, according to a report of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The UNHCR revealed the report ahead of 20 June World Refugee Day on Thursday (June 18).

Of the 7.95 crore people who were displaced at the end of last year, 4.57 crore were people who had fled to other areas of their own countries. The rest were people displaced elsewhere, 42 lakh of them being people awaiting the outcome of asylum requests, while 2.96 crore were refugees and others forcibly displaced outside their country. That means forced displacement is now affecting more than one per cent of humanity – 1 in every 97 people – and with fewer and fewer of those who flee being able to return home, the report said.

In this regard, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, "We are witnessing a changed reality in that forced displacement nowadays is not only vastly more widespread but is simply no longer a short-term and temporary phenomenon".

“People cannot be expected to live in a state of upheaval for years on end, without a chance of going home, nor a hope of building a future where they are. We need a fundamentally new and more accepting attitude towards all who flee, coupled with a much more determined drive to unlock conflicts that go on for years and that are at the root of such immense suffering,” he says.


Dhaka/AI