One per cent of the world's population has been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution to seek safety either somewhere within their country or in another country, according to the latest Global Trends report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
As more people became displaced than at any time since UNHCR began issuing its annual study, fewer and fewer were able to return home - or even build sustainable, fulfilling new lives in another country.
"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," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
At the end of 2019, there were 79.5 million people around the world who had been forcibly displaced, according to the yearly report, up from 70.8 million the year before. The rise was in part due to worrying new displacement in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sahel region of Africa, Yemen and Syria. It also reflected the inclusion for the first time of 3.6 million Venezuelans who have been displaced outside their country but who have not sought asylum.
You can read or download the report UNHCR Global Trends 2019 here
source; commonspace.eu with UNHCR.org
