The UN refugee agency has counted 100 million people worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes, the highest number of displaced people recorded since World War II, writes MIA.
The displacement of civilians from Ukraine was the largest and fastest-growing refugee crisis since the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was established in 1951, the body said in its Global Trends Report, which was released on Thursday.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was among the multiple simultaneous emergencies, alongside that in Afghanistan, which pushed the figure over the “dramatic milestone” of 100 million, the Geneva-based UNHCR said.
Numbers had climbed every year in the last decade, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned, adding that the “terrible trend” would continue unless the international community took action to resolve conflicts and find lasting resolutions.
The report addresses developments in 2021, but includes the current refugee figure to highlight the devastating consequences of the Ukraine war. The UNHCR counted 89.3 million people displaced by war, violence, persecution, and human rights abuses by the end of 2021 – 8% more than a year earlier.
The number has been rising for years, with more than double the number of people fleeing their homes in late 2021 compared to ten years earlier.
