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The number of individuals forced to escape their homes thanks to conflict, persecution and human rights abuses has doubled within the past decade to succeed in 82.4 million at the top of last year, the United Nations said on Friday.
“During the year of COVID, the movement was practically impossible for many folks, around 3 million more people are forcibly displaced,” U.N. diplomat for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters.
Nearly 70% of these affected are from just five countries – Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar – consistent with the annual report on forced displacement by the U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR.
“Trends have unfortunately continued. So if we had to figure to update the figures… for the primary six months of 2021, we’ll probably see an extra increase from that 82.4 million,” said Grandi. Around 42% of these displaced were children.
He said the rise in those uprooted from their homes was partly fuelled by new flashpoints, including northern Mozambique, West Africa’s Sahel region, and Ethiopia’s Tigray, along side flare-ups in long-running conflicts in Afghanistan and Somalia.
The United Nations is additionally preparing for a possible further displacement of civilians in Afghanistan after U.S. and international troops leave the country in September, Grandi said.
Amid an increase in populism and nationalism in global politics, Grandi called on world leaders to “stop demonizing people” that are forced to maneuver .
“It’s vital that the pledge is administered ,” he said. “The attitude that I heard in Washington is folks that are in need of international protection are going to be given international protection, but we must make the system simpler otherwise abuses will happen, numbers will skyrocket.”
The UNHCR report found that in 2020 just 34,400 refugees were formally resettled globally – one-third of the previous year. They were resettled within the us , Canada and Europe.