Global level of forced displacement climbs to record 110 mln

The number of people forcibly displaced around the world has climbed to a record 110 million people, the head of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said, with conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan spurring millions of people to flee their homes.
UNHCR said in a report released on Wednesday, the increase of around 19 million people to 108.4 million by the end of last year is the biggest annual jump on record. That number has since risen further to 110 million, mostly due to Sudan’s eight-week-old conflict, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told journalists.
The Forced Displacement report showed, for the two decades before the Syria conflict in 2011, the global level was roughly stable at about 40 million refugees and internally displaced people. But they have risen each year since and have now more than doubled. The report said, more than one in every 74 people is now displaced.
Grandi blamed “the usual package of causes” which he said were conflict, persecution, discrimination, violence and climate change. Of the total refugees and those needing international protection, about half of them came from just three countries: Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Grandi raised concerns about tougher rules on admitting refugees and push-backs, without naming countries.