120 million people forcibly displaced in 2024 by UNHCR, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre 2:18pm 15th Jun, 2024   20 June 2024    World Refugee Day, by Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees:    Today, on World Refugee Day, we honour the millions of people around the globe who are forced to flee violence and persecution. We celebrate their remarkable fortitude and capacity for renewal, despite the daunting challenges they face.    The picture is rarely as desperate as where I am now, in Jamjang, South Sudan. In recent months nearly 700,000 people have crossed from neighbouring Sudan, fleeing a devastating war that has taken their homes, their loved ones - everything. Some fled this country long ago to escape South Sudan’s civil war; now they are being forced back to a place still struggling to recover from years of fighting and famine. Others are Sudanese – teachers, doctors, shopkeepers and farmers – who must now navigate life as refugees.    Refugees arriving at borders is not just an issue for rich countries. Three quarters of the world’s refugees live in countries with low or modest incomes – it is false, and irresponsible, to claim that most are trying to get to Europe or the US.    Just look at the tragedy unfolding in Sudan: It is neighbouring South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Egypt that provide sanctuary to Sudanese people fleeing the horror.    These countries show that solidarity is possible even under the most trying circumstances. I commend them for it. But they cannot do it alone. At a time of division and upheaval, refugees – and those hosting them – need us all to pull together.    We live in a world where conflicts are left to fester. The political will to resolve them seems utterly absent. And even as these crises multiply, the right to seek asylum is under threat. To make matters worse, the global effects of climate change take an ever more devastating toll – including here, where severe flooding is expected to submerge villages and farmlands, adding to South Sudan’s woes.    Yet there are many reasons for hope. Today is also a day to celebrate progress made. A bold new development plan in Kenya will transform legacy refugee camps into settlements where refugees will have greater opportunities to advance, and full access to a range of services. In Colombia, UNHCR supports a government system to include almost 2.3 million Venezuelans in the labour market. In Ukraine, we helped to build a platform that supports people who are cautiously returning to repair or rebuild their homes.    This longer-term approach is key – sustainable action in education, energy, food security, employment, housing and more, working with states, development partners and others. Let’s not leave refugees in limbo; instead, let’s give them the chance to use their skills and talents and contribute to the communities that have welcomed them.    International funding to help those fleeing war in Sudan, and to enable local authorities and host communities to expand infrastructure, settlements and services, has fallen short. And worldwide, many other crises are similarly neglected.    On World Refugee Day and every day, we can all do more to show solidarity with refugees and work towards a world where they are welcomed, or can return home in peace. With courage, commitment and compassion, solutions are within our grasp.    http://www.unhcr.org/news/speeches-and-statements/unhcr-s-grandi-let-s-make-refugee-inclusion-norm http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-ipsos-survey-shows-enduring-public-support-refugees-alongside-stark http://www.unhcr.org/news/announcements/laws-and-practices-asylum-must-resist-politics-fear-and-exclusion-un-rights http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/ioc-refugee-olympic-team-represent-more-100-million-displaced-people-olympic http://www.unhcr.org/news-and-stories    June 2024    Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.    The rise in overall forced displacement – to 120 million by May 2024 – was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises. The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan’s.    A key factor driving the figures higher has been the devastating conflict in Sudan: at the end of 2023, 10.8 million Sudanese remained uprooted. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, millions were internally displaced last year by vicious fighting. UNRWA estimates that by the end of last year, up to 1.7 million people (75 per cent of the population) had been displaced in the Gaza Strip by the catastrophic violence, most of whom were Palestine refugees. Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 13.8 million forcibly displaced in and outside the country.    “Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanize the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.    “It is high time for warring parties to respect the basic laws of war and international law. The fact is that without better cooperation and concerted efforts to address conflict, human rights violations and the climate crisis, displacement figures will keep rising, bringing fresh misery and costly humanitarian responses.”    The largest increase in displacement figures came from people fleeing conflict who remain in their own country, rising to 68.3 million people according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre – up almost 50 per cent over five years.    The number of refugees, and others in need of international protection, climbed to 43.4 million when including those under UNHCR and UNRWA’s mandates. The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their own, with 75 per cent residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 per cent of the world’s income.    The report showed that worldwide, more than 5 million internally displaced people and 1 million refugees returned home in 2023. These figures show some progress towards longer-term solutions.    “Refugees – and the communities hosting them – need solidarity and a helping hand. They can and do contribute to societies when they are included,” Grandi added. “Equally, last year millions of people returned home, representing an important glimmer of hope. Solutions are out there – we’ve seen countries like Kenya lead the way in refugee inclusion – but it takes real commitment.”    The report also offered new analysis on the climate crisis and how it increasingly and disproportionately affects forcibly displaced people.    Given the immense challenges facing 120 million forcibly displaced people outlined in the Global Trends report, UNHCR remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering new approaches and solutions to help people forced to flee their homes, wherever they are.    http://www.unhcr.org/global-trends http://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2023 http://www.unhcr.org/emergencies http://www.nrc.no/news/2024/june/117-million-forced-to-flee-an-utter-failure-to-protect-civilians/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/ration-cuts-taking-hungry-feed-starving http://press.un.org/en/2024/ecosoc7173.doc.htm    May 2024    Conflicts drive new record of 75.9 million people living in internal displacement, reports the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre    Conflict and violence in Sudan, Palestine and elsewhere drove the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world to 75.9 million at the end of 2023, a new record, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which published its annual Global Report on Internal Displacement today.    Of the total, 68.3 million were displaced by conflict and violence and 7.7 million by disasters. Almost half, 46 per cent, of all IDPs live in sub-Saharan Africa.    In Sudan, the 9.1m people displaced at the end of the year was the most ever recorded in a single country since records began in 2008. Sudan's 6 million internal displacements, or forced movements, by conflict during 2023 were more than its previous 14 years combined and the second most ever recorded in one country after Ukraine's 16.9 million in 2022.    In the Gaza Strip, IDMC calculated 3.4 million displacements in the last three months of 2023, which was 17 per cent of total conflict displacements worldwide during the year.    Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director, said the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were just the "tip of the iceberg", adding to the tens of millions of IDPs already displaced from previous and ongoing conflicts, violence and disasters.    "Over the past two years, we've seen alarming new levels of people having to flee their homes due to conflict and violence, even in regions where the trend had been improving," said Ms Bilak. "Conflict, and the devastation it leaves behind, is keeping millions from rebuilding their lives, often for years on end."    In the past five years, the number of people living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence has increased by 22.6 million, or 49 per cent, with the two biggest increases in 2022 and 2023.    "Millions of families are having their lives torn apart by conflict and violence. We have never, ever recorded so many people forced away from their homes and communities. It is a damning verdict on the failures of conflict prevention and peace-making," said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.    "The suffering and the displacement last far beyond the news cycle. Too often their fate ends up in silence and neglect. The lack of protection and assistance that millions endure cannot be allowed to continue."    Floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires and other disasters triggered 26.4 million displacements in 2023, the third highest annual total in the past ten years. The 7.7 million IDPs at the end of 2023 displaced by disasters is the second most since IDMC began recording this metric in 2019.    The 148 countries reporting disaster displacement include high-income countries such as Canada and New Zealand which reported their highest figures ever.    Climate change is making some hazards more frequent and intense, such as cyclone Mocha in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Otis in Mexico, storm Daniel in the Mediterranean and wildfires in Canada and Greece last summer. It is also making communities more vulnerable and addressing the underlying drivers of displacement more urgent.    "No country is immune to disaster displacement," said Ms Bilak. "But we can see a difference in how displacement affects people in countries that prepare and plan for its impacts and those that don't. Those that look at the data and make prevention, response and long-term development plans that consider displacement fare far better."    As in previous years, floods and storms caused the most disaster displacement, including in south-eastern Africa where cyclone Freddy triggered 1.4 million movements across six countries and territories.    Earthquakes and volcanic activity triggered 6.1 million displacements in 2023, as many as in the past seven years combined. The earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria triggered 4.7 million displacements, one of the largest disaster displacement events since records began in 2008.    http://www.internal-displacement.org/news/conflicts-drive-new-record-of-759-million-people-living-in-internal-displacement/ http://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2024/ http://www.nrc.no/feature/2024/the-worlds-most-neglected-displacement-crises-2023 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/number-displaced-children-reaches-new-high-433-million http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-internally-displaced-persons http://disasterdisplacement.org/news-events/    Jan. 2024    Last year, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, responded to a sharply higher number of new or deepening humanitarian crises – the highest annual number of declared emergencies in the last 10 years.    According to the Emergency Preparedness and Response in 2023 report, UNHCR issued 43 emergency declarations to scale up support in 29 countries.    “Over the past year, we have seen a staggering increase in emergencies, with new crises unfolding and unresolved ones deteriorating, pushing the boundaries of our capacity to respond,” said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR Director of External Relations.    “Whether sparked by conflict, human rights violations, natural disasters or extreme weather events, these emergencies have resulted in a surge of displacement, leaving countless individuals and families in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and protection. The scale of human suffering is unmeasurable and a stark reminder of the imperative for collective action and solidarity.”    During 2023, UNHCR responded to multiple crises globally, aiding millions affected by earthquakes in Syria, Turkiye and Afghanistan; a new conflict in Sudan and flare-ups of old conflicts in Karabakh and Somalia; a deteriorating crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, unprecedented mixed movements of refugees and migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean, and floods in Libya and the Horn of Africa.    With the upward trajectory of emergencies in 2023 poised to persist in 2024 and the number of forcibly displaced people expected to rise to 130 million by the end of the year, the need for solidarity and support for people forced to flee has never been as important as it is today.    Nov. 2023    Humanitarians are being asked to pick up the pieces of our unstable world, statement by Filippo Grandi - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the UN Security Council:    Our latest figures speak of 114 million refugees and displaced people around the world: 114 million!    This is surely a tangible but sometimes neglected symptom of the world’s current extreme disorder, and including this yearly discussion in your charged agenda, especially these days.    Forced displacement is also a consequence of the failure to uphold peace and security. And brutal conflict continues to be its main driver.    The past three weeks have provided devastating proof that disregarding the basic rules of war – international humanitarian law – is increasingly becoming the norm and not the exception, with innocent civilians killed in unprecedented numbers: in the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and in the killing of Palestinian civilians and massive destruction of infrastructure caused by the ongoing Israeli military operation.    As we speak, and as you know, over two million Gazans, half of them children, are going through what my colleague Philippe Lazzarini has called “hell on earth”.    A humanitarian ceasefire coupled of course with substantive delivery of humanitarian aid inside Gaza can at least stop this spiral of death and I hope that you will overcome your divisions and exercise your authority in demanding one – the world is waiting for you to do so.    But one must hope that a ceasefire becomes the first step towards embarking again – finally – on the path towards a solution. Over many years, including those in which I headed UNRWA, I have observed how solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was always described as ‘elusive’: but it has not been elusive; it has been repeatedly and deliberately neglected, cast aside as something no longer necessary, and almost ridiculed.    Dealing with the chronic resurgence of violence, followed by temporary ceasefires, was deemed more expedient than focusing on a real peace; one able to provide Israelis and Palestinians with the rights, recognition, security, and statehood that they deserve.    I hope that now, amidst the horrors of war, we can at least see how grave a miscalculation that has been. There will be no peace in the region, and in the world, without a just solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, including the end of the Israeli occupation.    While UNHCR does not have a mandate to operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (and let me pay tribute here especially to UNRWA, my former organization, and other humanitarian staff for their heroic work, and express my deepest condolences for the now over 70 colleagues who have been killed), it is clear that this latest and deadliest round of violent conflict risks infecting the wider region and beyond with catastrophic consequences – including in places where UNHCR is very much present and working to help protect and assist the displaced and solve their plight.    The conflict in Gaza is the latest – and perhaps largest – piece of a most dangerous jigsaw of war that is rapidly closing in around us. But we – you – have the responsibility to remember that it Is not the only one.    Look at Sudan: just six months ago governments and media were very focused on this situation as their citizens were being extracted from a war that erupted without warning and turned previously peaceful Sudanese homes into cemeteries. Now, fighting is growing in scope and brutality, affecting the people of Sudan, and the world is scandalously silent, though violations of international humanitarian law persist with impunity.    It is shameful that the atrocities committed 20 years ago in Darfur can be happening again today with such little attention. As a result, almost six million people have been forced from their homes; more than a million have fled to neighbouring and often fragile countries – and some of them have already moved on to Libya and Tunisia, and are crossing the Mediterranean on flimsy boats towards Italy and the rest of Europe. I welcome the resumption of the Jeddah talks – and hope they will help at least reach a ceasefire soon.    Look at Lebanon – reeling from economic collapse in a country where one in four people is a Palestinian or Syrian refugee – a concrete symptom of not one but two unresolved conflicts at this tiny country’s borders.    Look at the Central Sahel, where amongst grave political instability the brutal violence which has terrorised civilians for years is rising again, increasingly driving people to Africa’s coastal states, which are rightly very concerned, against the background of a climate emergency that is relentlessly wreaking havoc across the poorest countries.    Look at the Democratic Republic of Congo, where one of the worst effects of modern conflict – horrifying violence against women – is so widespread as a tool of war to make the world almost numb to the reports received every day of more women and children raped, exploited, and killed – violence that drives people from their homes every day.    Look at Armenia, where 100,000 refugees fled Karabakh in a matter of days; the result of yet another unresolved conflict that had been allowed to simmer for decades.    Look at places like Central America and elsewhere, where we observe growing patterns of unresolved crises compounded by criminality, including by gangs that cause displacement – and where increasingly complex population flows now include also many arriving from Africa and beyond – a testimony to the globality of displacement and despair.    Each new crisis seems to push the previous ones into dangerous oblivion. But they stay with us.    Look at Ukraine, where the plight of all civilians – including more than 11 million people forced from their homes following the Russian invasion – continues and is particularly acute now, as winter sets in again, as you have just heard. Their suffering must not be forgotten and this conflict, too, must be resolved with a just peace for the people of Ukraine.    Look at all these crises, And let this lifelong humanitarian worker tell you that we need your voice to address each one of them. Not your voices. Your voice. Your strong, united voice, carrying the authority which the Charter vests in this Council, but which the world does not hear any more, drowned as it is in rivalries and divisions.    From where I sit, this has become difficult to understand. As a believer in multilateralism, and in the role of the United Nations, I simply cannot accept it.    Humanitarians are being asked to pick up the pieces and help more people in more places. We are asked to keep going for longer and to try to hold more things together, while little political capital is spent on making peace.    Please rest assured that we won’t give up, even when it is difficult. Recognising the extraordinary burden represented by millions of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, for example, we continue to work with the Government of Syria in bridging the still wide gap of trust and creating conditions for refugees to eventually return voluntarily, in safety and in dignity, when there is peace in the country.    This is why it is frustrating when we find windows for solutions, like for example in Burundi, and we do not have the funds to help people return home and restart their lives.    And there are different challenges as well – also a reflection of our unstable world: for example, in countries like Myanmar, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, where the combination of conflict, human rights violations and humanitarian challenges mean that delivering aid – indispensable to save lives – requires interaction with de facto authorities in fraught and often dangerous political contexts.    I appreciate the risks, and also the work done by the Council on humanitarian carve-outs, which I hope will continue. Because in these situations we need flexibility – from those in control of the territory first and foremost, but also from our supporters.    The reality is that humanitarians are trying to pick up the pieces of the jigsaw also in these places – places where most governments find it too difficult to operate. We are engaging and therefore we are exposed. But we persist because the people cannot wait for a peace that is not pursued.    And on top of this, we are being asked to do more with less. Forgive me if I talk money – but I must, because humanitarian work needs resources.    UNHCR alone urgently needs US$600 million before the end of the year, and prospects for next year are dismal, with big donors cutting aid and others – who could help – not engaging in multilateral support.    UNRWA – whose crucial role is now clear to all – has been left chronically underfunded. The World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the International Committee of the Red Cross all face the same financial crunch in their humanitarian activities.    So we prioritise and reprioritise. We cut rations, shelter, staff, hoping to maintain a lifeline to those in need. But in many places that lifeline is becoming thinner by the day.    Being alone, being exposed, being short of resources make me wonder for how much longer we can continue. Humanitarians are tough – but humanitarians, are near breaking point. And what will you be left with, when they have to go?    The gravity of this moment cannot be overstated. The choices that the 15 of you make – or fail to make – will mark us all; and for generations to come. Will you continue to allow this jigsaw of war to be completed by aggressive acts, by your disunity, or by sheer neglect? Or will you take the courageous and necessary steps back from the abyss?    http://www.unhcr.org/news/speeches-and-statements/high-commissioner-s-statement-united-nations-security-council http://www.unhcr.org/news/unhcr-forced-displacement-continues-grow-conflicts-escalate http://story.internal-displacement.org/2023-mid-year-update/ Visit the related web page
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