UN says 65 million people displaced in 2015, a new record

Conflict in countries like South Sudan and Somalia raised the total number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in sub-Saharan Africa to 18.4 million in 2015, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). And the 65 million displaced to date hits a record high, United Nations officials said.

UNHCR’s Monday statement mentioned that 24 people were forced to flee each minute in 2015 on average. Nearly one in five individuals living in Lebanon are refugees, making it a nation that “hosted more refugees compared to its population than any other country”, according to the UNHCR.

According to the report, which was released on the UN World Refugee Day, about half of all refugees were children at the end of 2015. Two-thirds of the forcibly displaced are internally displaced…

Palestinians account for the largest group of refugees at more than five million, including those who fled at the creation of Israel in 1948 and their descendants. It is likely that this number will continue to rise through 2016 and even further as the situation in Syria does not seem to be improving. By the end of 2015, nine out of 1,000 of the world’s population fell into one of the three categories, meaning that almost 1 percent of the world’s population is now displaced.

Around 2.45 million asylum or refugee-status applications were made in 2015.

A refugee watch outside of the window with her child in a hospital at a refugee camp in Kenya on May 8, 2015. As conflict and persecution force growing numbers of people to flee, anti-migrant political sentiment has strained the will to resettle refugees, said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi. Turkey became the biggest host country with 2.5 million refugees.

Monday marks World Refugee Day, which was first commemorated in 2001.

Conflicts are occurring more frequently.

Displaced people live beneath a decommissioned airplane near the worldwide airport in Bangui, Central African Republic. While the Americas, Asia and the Middle East saw their refugee numbers decline slightly, Africa – which doesn’t include North Africa here – saw a 20-per-cent jump in refugees, while Europe saw their refugee count climb a staggering 43 per cent.

“Politics is gravitating against asylum in some countries”, said Mr. Grandi, adding that a “frightening” number of refugees and migrants are dying at sea, while on land people are finding their way blocked by closed borders. “It seems you are handling so well till this point, but it is not only Turkish responsibility to (take) care of these people, because if we could not maintain (them) in time globally, it’s going to be a hotbed for the coming problems in Turkey and out of Turkey as well”.