GENEVA: The United Nations refugee agency has said that the number of people forcibly displaced stood at a record 117.3 million as of the end of last year, warning that this figure could increase further without major global political changes.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that these are asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), people being forced away by conflict, by persecution, by different and increasingly complex shapes of violence.
“Conflict remains a key driver of displacement worldwide.” In its report on international trends in forced displacement, the UNHCR maintained that there had been a yearly rise in the number of people forcibly displaced during last 12 years.
UNHCR estimates that forced displacement has continued to rise in the first four months of 2024, and that the number of those displaced is expected to have exceeded 120 million by the end of April. According to Grandi unless there is a shift in global geopolitics, unfortunately, they actually see that figure continuing to increase.
The conflicts that have driven displacement include the ongoing war in Sudan, which Filippo Grandi described as “one of the most disastrous ones” despite garnering less attention that other catastrophes.
Over 9 million people have been internally displaced and another two million have fled to neighboring nations including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, Grandi stated.
In Gaza, Israel’s brutal bombardment and ground offensive have caused about 1.7 million people – about 80 percent of the Palestinian enclave’s population – to become internally displaced, many of them several times.
Grandi also warned that the possible crossings of Gazans into Egypt from the southern border town of Rafah to escape Israel’s military operation would be catastrophic. “Another refugee crisis outside Gaza would be disastrous on all levels because we have no guarantee that the people will be able to return to Gaza one day,” Grandi further said.
