Internal conflicts, violence, and persecution globally have driven the displacement of populations to a record high in 2017, the fifth year in a row, according to the UN’s annual Global Trends report.
By the end of 2017, the number was nearly three million higher than the previous year and showed a 50-percent increase from the 42.7 million uprooted from their homes a decade ago, according to the report.
And perhaps most distressing – The overwhelming majority of displaced people are from developing countries. Almost two-thirds of those forced to flee are internally displaced people who have not left their own countries.
“We are at a watershed, where success in managing forced displacement globally requires a new and far more comprehensive approach so that countries and communities aren’t left dealing with this alone,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
“But there is a reason for some hope. Fourteen countries are already pioneering a new blueprint for responding to refugee situations and in a matter of months, a new Global Compact on Refugees will be ready for adoption by the United Nations General Assembly. Today, on the eve of World Refugee Day, my message to member states is to please support this. No one becomes a refugee by choice, but the rest of us can have a choice about how we help.”
Major drivers behind displacement
Major drivers in 2017 were the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war in South Sudan and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh. However, Syria’s seven-year-long conflict alone has forced over 6.3 million people out of the country, accounting for one-third of the global refugee population.
In all, 63 percent of all refugees under UNHCR’s responsibility were in just 10 countries. They include Syria; Afghanistan; South Sudan; Myanmar; Somalia; Sudan; the Congo; Central African Republic; Eritrea and Burundi.
And after 70 years of statehood, Israel still has about 5.4 million Palestinians living as refugees, the report said. And globally, 53 percent of the displaced population are children – many who are unaccompanied or separated from their families.
As the UN report concluded, solutions to the problem are few and far between. Wars and conflicts continue to be major drivers and there is little progress being made in finding peace.
