More than 80 million people displaced globally due to violence in 2020 conflicts: UN

(Karachi) The United Nations (UN) has revealed that more people have been forced to flee violence and persecution in 2020, raising the number beyond 80 million despite ceasefire calls amid COVID-19 pandemic.

The UNHCR's preliminary figures suggest that by the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were living uprooted and displaced, including nearly 30 million refugees — more than one percent of the world's population.

It highlighted that in the first half of 2020, violence in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia and Yemen compelled several people to displace.

Likewise, the UN data stated that significant displacement was also witnessed in Africa's central Sahel region due to extreme violence, including rape and executions.

The UN agency pointed out that the coronavirus crisis had affected every aspect of human life and severely worsened existing challenges for the forcibly displaced and stateless.

It pointed out that some of the measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 had made it more difficult for refugees to reach safety.

The UN stated that during the first wave of COVID-19, 168 countries fully or partially closed their borders, including 90 that made no exception for people seeking asylum. Since then though, 111 countries have found "pragmatic solutions" to ensure asylum processes can remain functional, the UNHCR said.

Despite this, new asylum applications dropped by a third during the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2019. At the same time, the number of vulnerable refugees resettled to third countries was slashed in half, to just 17,400 in the first half of the year, it said.

In a statement, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said: "We are now surpassing another bleak milestone that will continue to grow unless world leaders stop wars."

"With forced displacement doubling in the last decade, the international community is failing to safeguard peace," Grandi said.