Geneva — Wars, persecution and other forms of violence left a record 71 million people displaced worldwide last year, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday. This represents an increase of more than two million people compared to the previous year and the total is equivalent to the inhabitants of the 20th most populous country in the world.
The annual “Global Trends” report published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees includes the number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons worldwide until the end of 2018, some cases after decades living away from home. The figures, which were released on the eve of World Refugee Day on Thursday, will stok the debate on the interconnectedness of international law, human rights and national politics, especially the movement in some countries, like the United States, against migrants and refugees.
In the presentation of the report, the high commissioner, Filippo Grandi, sent a message to US President Donald Trump and other world leaders noting that it is “harmful” to describe migrants and refugees as threats to employment and security in recipient countries. Normally, they themselves flee from insecurity and danger, he added. The report also provides statistical support to the often poignant stories of those struggling to survive by crossing rivers, deserts, seas, fences and other barriers, natural and artificial, to escape government oppression, gang killings, sexual abuse, militia killings and other violence in their countries. According to UNHCR, 70.8 million people were forced to leave their homes by the end of last year, from around 68.5 million in 2017, and almost 65% more than a decade ago. Of these, nearly three out of five _ or more than 41 million people _ were displaced within their own nation. “Global trends, once again, unfortunately, go in what I would say is the wrong direction,” Grandi told reporters in Geneva. “There are new conflicts, new situations, producing refugees that add up to the previous ones. The above are never resolved.” The phenomenon is growing in both size and duration. About four-fifths of the “displacement situations” have lasted more than five years. After eight years of war in Syria, for example, its population remains the largest among displaced people, at around 13 million. Faced with exorbitant inflation and political instability in the country, Venezuelans were for the first time the largest number of new asylum seekers in 2018, with more than 340,000 _ or more one in five cases filed worldwide last year. Asylum seekers have international protection while waiting for the resolution of their refugee status. UNHCR noted that these figures are ‘conservative’ and that Venezuela masks a possible, longer-term trend. It is known that about four million people left the South American nation in recent years. Many of them traveled freely to Peru, Colombia and Brazil, but only about an eighth requested international protection, and the continuous flow, implying that tensions in the host countries could worsen. Grandi predicted a continued “exodus” from Venezuela and called on donors to provide more development aid for the region. “Otherwise, these countries will no longer be able to withstand the pressure and will have to resort to measures that will harm refugees,” he said. “We are in a very dangerous situation.” For its part, the United States remains the “largest refugee support” in the world, Grandi explained in an interview. Washington is UNHCR’s largest individual donor. He also recognized the work of a local rights group and communities in the United States to help refugees and asylum seekers in the country. However, the head of the refugee agency identified administrative deficiencies in the long run made the number of asylum applications in the country the highest in the world, with nearly 719,000. Last year, more than a quarter of a million orders were filed. Grandi also criticized the recent hostile rhetoric towards migrants and refugees. “In the United States, as in Europe and elsewhere, we are witnessing an identification of refugees _ but not just of the refugees, but also of the migrants _ with people who come to take our jobs and threaten our security, our values,” he said. “And I want to tell the U.S. government, the president, but also to leaders around the world, this is harmful.” Those who leave Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador through Mexico faced gang violence and suffered because of “the inability of these governments to protect their own citizens,” he added. The UNHCR report stressed that developing countries are the most refugees. The figures were the seventh consecutive year with an increase in the number of displaced persons. “One more year, another terrible record has been broken,” said Jon Cerezo of British NGO Oxfam. Behind those numbers, people like you and me are making dangerous journeys they never wanted to make, because of threats to their security and the most basic rights.”
