Record 65 Million Displaced by Global Conflicts, U.N. Says
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United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, center, during a visit at the refugee camp Kara Tepe on the Greek island of Lesbos, on Saturday.CreditManolis Lagoutaris/Associated Press
More people are on the run than ever before in recorded history, theUnited Nationssaidin a report released Monday.
They include those fleeing marauders in South Sudan, drug gangs in Central America, and the Islamic State in the Iraqi cities ofMosulandFalluja. While most are displaced within their own countries, an unprecedented number are seeking political asylum in the world’s rich countries. Nearly 100,000 are children who have attempted the journey alone.
All told, the number of people displaced by conflict is estimated to exceed 65 million, more than the population of Britain.
The new figures, part of the United Nations refugee agency’s Global Trends Report, come as hostility is surging toward migrants and refugees in the Western countries where they are seeking sanctuary and relief.
The European Union has shown signs of fracturing over how to handle the influx of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi,expressed alarm on Sundayabout what he described as a “climate of xenophobia that is very worrying in today’s Europe.”
BY THE NUMBERS
65.3 million
people are displaced by conflict worldwide
Nearly 41 million
of them are displaced inside their own countries.
98,400
of them were children under 18 traveling without a parent or guardian.
3.2 million
refugees have applied for asylum in industrialized countries.
200,000
displaced people were able to go home or find a permanent home in a new country.
All statistics for 2015. Source: UNHCR
On Saturday, the United Nations secretary general,Ban Ki-moon, denounced what he called “border closures, barriers and bigotry” during a visit to Lesbos, the Greek island where thousands of asylum seekers have arrived, mainly fromSyria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Ban implored European leaders to stop treating refugees as criminals.
“Detention is not the answer. It should end immediately,” he said. “Let us work together to resettle more people, provide legal pathways and better integrate refugees.”
The issue of how to handle the worldwide movement of people, whether they are fleeing war, persecution, poverty or environmental devastation, will be a major theme in September at the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.
In the United States, which historically has resettled more refugees than any other country, the Obama administration’s promise to absorb 10,000 Syrians by October isoff to a slow start. The administration also is facingcriticism from rights advocatesover a new round of deportations of Central Americans, including women and children.
Several American states have tried to block the resettlement of Syrians. The latest effort, in Texas, wasthrown outby a federal judge last week.
The annual report by the United Nations refugee agency found that in 2015, 65.3 million people remained forcibly displaced from their homes by war and persecution. Some had been displaced for decades because of protracted conflicts in countries like Afghanistan and Colombia.
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Migrants rested on Sunday outside the Moria detention center in Lesbos. Mr. Ban, on Saturday, denounced what he called “border closures, barriers and bigotry” and implored European leaders to stop treating migrants as criminals.CreditAngelos Tzortzinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The bulk of these people — nearly 41 million — were still living within their own countries. Never before had the United Nations documented so many“internally displaced persons,”as they are officially defined. The largest numbers were inside Syria and Iraq, but insurgencies in Nigeria and Somalia also scattered millions inside those countries.
