The UN has called for action after an increase in people fleeing conflict and persecution despite the COVID pandemic. The number of displaced people has doubled in the last decade,
DW reports.
The number of people leaving their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violations has increased to 82.4 million, according to the Global Trends report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The report released in Geneva on Friday called for reversing the global trend towards more flight and displacement triggered by violence and persecution, which has been going on for almost a decade.
The newly released total figure is 4% higher than the previous year when 79.5 million had been recorded at the end of 2019.
The vast majority of refugees around the world are hosted by countries that border crisis areas and are low- and middle-income nations. The world's least developed countries host 27% of the world's refugees.
At the end of last year, there were 20.7 million refugees under the UNHCR mandate, 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, and 3.9 million Venezuelans who fled their homes. All those figures represent slight increases compared to 2019.
A further 48 million people were displaced within their own country while there are 4.1 million asylum-seekers.
These figures show that despite the pandemic and calls for a global cease-fire so governments could care for the sick, conflict continues to drive people from their homes.
