Forced population displacements have broken a new record in the world. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which publishes its annual report this Thursday, 89.3 million people were forced to flee their region or their country at the end of 2021. And this because of persecutions, conflicts, violations of human rights.
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By way of comparison, 10 years ago in 2011, the UNHCR counted around 40 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. This toll includes refugees and asylum seekers as well as the 53.2 million people who have fled within their country. However, it does not take into account refugees from the war in Ukraine that broke out on February 24, 2022.
“Indeed, if you add them, we now exceed 100 million forcibly displaced people”said this Thursday on franceinfo Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “I really wish I had never arrived at this number… terrible. An awful symptom of the state of our world”.
The five countries that have hosted the most refugees are Turkey (3.8 million), Colombia (1.8 million), Uganda (1.5 million), Pakistan (1.5 million) and Germany (1.3 million). Lhe United Nations refugee agency also notes that more than two-thirds (69%) of those displaced abroad come from one of the following five countries: Syria (6.8 million), Venezuela (4, 6 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million), South Sudan (2.4 million) and Burma (1.2 million).
These states face wars or conflicts but “the causes that drive people to flee are becoming more complex”explains Filippo Grandi.He recalls that “Of course at the root of refugee flows there are conflicts, violence, violations of human rights, but we are increasingly seeing other causes intervene: climatic phenomena, social inequalities, even the pandemic has caused population movements”.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees anticipates the indirect consequences of the war in Ukraine: “It will cause food crises and we will have later complications”. UNHCR notes that 72% of exiles flee to neighboring countries and 83% to poor or developing countries. “In the West, it often seems that refugees are people who come to us, but in fact the majority are people who move from one poor country to another poor country”emphasizes Filippo Grandi.
5.7 million displaced people returned to their region or country of origin in 2021.