Global refugee numbers hit a record 65 million

A man distributes bread to Afghan refugees outside the Afghan Naan shop before they break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Islamabad on June 20, 2016. United Nations has said the global refugee numbers hit a record 65 million. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Globally, close to one percent of humanity has been forced to flee.
  • The UN said that one out of every 113 people on the planet was now either internally displaced or a refugee.

GENEVA

The number of refugees and others fleeing their homes worldwide has hit a new record, spiking to 65.3 million people by the end of 2015, the United Nations said on Monday.

Europe’s high-profile migrant crisis, its worst since World War II, is just one part of a growing tide of human misery led by Palestinians, Syrians and Afghans.

Globally, close to one percent of humanity has been forced to flee.

“This is the first time that the threshold of 60 million has been crossed,” the UN refugee agency said.

The figures, released on World Refugee Day, underscore twin pressures fuelling an unprecedented global displacement crisis.

As conflict and persecution force growing numbers of people to flee, anti-migrant political sentiment has strained the willingness to resettle refugees, said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.

“Instead of burden-sharing, we see borders closing. Instead of political will, there is political paralysis and humanitarian organisations like mine are left to deal with the consequences and struggling to save lives on limited budgets,” Grandi told reporters in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.

The number of people displaced globally rose by 5.8 million through 2015, according to the UN figures.

Counting Earth’s population at 7.349 billion, the UN said that one out of every 113 people on the planet was now either internally displaced or a refugee.

They now number more than the populations of Britain or France, the agency said, adding that it is “a level of risk for which UNHCR knows no precedent.”

“Every 24 minutes a person is forced to choose exile from his home,” Grandi said in Kabul. Displacement figures have been rising since the mid-1990s, but the rate of increase has jumped since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011.

Of the planet’s 65.3 million displaced, 40.8 million remain within their own country, 21.3 million have fled across borders and are now refugees, while the remainder are asylum seekers. Palestinians are the largest group of refugees at more than five million, including those who fled at the creation of Israel in 1948 and their descendants.