The recent Greece migrant boat disaster is being termed as one of the worst in the recent history. The tragedy comes at a time when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in its flagship annual report reveals that the number of people forcibly displaced around the world has reached a record of 108.4 million, with a record increase of 19 million people year-on-year in 2022 where 35.3 million people fled their countries, and around 63 million people accounted for internally displaced people.
This comes as no surprise as the world saw increased conflicts and challenges during the year. The report on the trends highlight that these displacements came about as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. The last one year has seen significant instances of the same with war on Ukraine being at the top, followed by the conflicts in Sudan, conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Myanmar – displacing people internally and out of their countries of origin.
Another lot is also displaced due to climate related events. Climate change in a reality and its effects are widely visible. The much less talked about impact of climate change has been the impact on human displacement. The floods of 2022 in Pakistan and the earth quake in Turkey earlier this year are examples where people are internally displaced. The reports say that around 33 million new displacements in 2022 were due to disasters, including climate-related events such as drought, flooding or cyclones.
What countries are hosting refugees? The data shows that around 76 percent of them are hosted by low and middle income counties with LDCs accounting for 20 percent of the influx. Similarly, 70 percent of the refugees are hosted in neighboring countries –countries next door the countries of origin. Where the number of refugees in Pakistan has come down over the years due to the US pullout from Afghanistan, Turkiye hosted the largest number of refugees of over 3.6 million in 2022 (10% of the total) – clearly showing the displacement of people from war hit areas of Ukraine. The data also shows that 52 per cent of all refugees and other people in need of international protection in 2022 came from just three countries: Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan, which was around 18 million people altogether.
The cost of armed conflict and climate has become too intense and the UNHCR has called for concerted efforts to address the pace. Not only dies this include peace talks and solving conflicts at the negotiation table, but also developed countries taking steps to address the climate change and its affects as countries that are most impacted including in terms of human displacement are those that do not have a significant share in increasing the globe’s carbon footprint.
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