A record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, the United Nations said on Wednesday, branding the huge upsurge an "indictment" of the world.
Russia's war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and the fighting in Sudan have pushed the total number of refugees forced to seek shelter abroad, and those displaced within their own countries, to an unprecedented level, said UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
At the end of last year, 108.4 million people were displaced, UNHCR said in its flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement.
The number was up 19.1 million from the end of 2021 -- the biggest-ever increase since the records began back in 1975.
Since then, the eruption of the conflict in Sudan has triggered further displacement, pushing the global total to an estimated 110 million by May.
"We have 110 million people that have fled because of conflict, persecution, discrimination and violence, often mixed with other motives -- in particular the impact of climate change," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told a press conference in Geneva.
"It's quite an indictment on the state of our world," he said .
The report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) found that the figure includes 62.5 million internally displaced people, 35.3 million refugees, 5.4 million asylum seekers and 5.2 million people in need of international protection.
Children
The heaviest burden is on the shoulders of low and middle-income countries, as they host 76% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.
The least developed countries provided asylum to 20% of the total, the report said, while 70% of the total were hosted in countries neighboring their countries of origin.
The report underlined that Türkiye hosts the largest refugee population worldwide with nearly 3.6 million refugees.
It is followed by Iran with 3.4 million, Colombia with 2.5 million and Germany with 2.1 million.
Relative to their national populations, Lebanon and Aruba hosted the largest number of refugees and other people in need of international protection as one in seven and one in six are displaced, respectively.
Meanwhile children, who account for 30% of the world’s population, represented 40% of all forcibly displaced people, according to the report.
On new claims, the report said the US was the world's largest recipient of new individual applicants, as it received 730,400 claims of a total 2.6 million in 2022.
Germany followed the US with 217,800. Costa Rica, Spain and Mexico completed the top five recipients.
Too slow solutions
The report underlined that 52% of all refugees and other people in need of international protection came from just three countries: Syria (6.5 million), Ukraine (5.7 million) and Afghanistan (5.7 million).
Also, the total number of refugees worldwide rose by a record 35%, or 8.9 million people, to 34.6 million at the end of 2022, it said.
The increase was largely due to refugees from Ukraine fleeing the armed conflict in their country and revised estimates of Afghans in Iran and Pakistan, it added.
"These figures show us that some people are far too quick to rush to conflict and way too slow to find solutions," said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"The consequence is devastation, displacement, and anguish for each of the millions of people forcibly uprooted from their homes."
The report also recorded some positive progress as six million displaced people returned to their areas of countries of origin in 2022, including 5.7 million internally displaced people ( IDPs) and 339,300 refugees.
Meanwhile, 114,300 refugees were resettled, doubling the figure of the previous year (57,500), according to government statistics.
Also, the UNHCR submitted 116,500 refugees to states for resettlement, according to the report.
"While the number of refugees and IDPs who found a solution increased in 2022 compared to the previous year, durable solutions continue to remain a reality for very few people," the report noted.
During 2022, at least 5.7 million IDPs returned to their place of origin, 8% more compared to the previous year, it said.
And for refugees, solutions such as voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement to a third country and family reunification prompted 339,300 refugees to return to their countries of origin, while 114,300 refugees were resettled to a safe third country.
For each refugee that returned or was resettled in 2022, there were 16 new refugees, the report added.
