The UN described the situation as a ‘human tragedy on a massive scale,’ with millions violently uprooted and struggling for survival as refugees and internally displaced people highly vulnerable to insecurity, and lack of food, water, shelter, and medical care
A staggering total of 120 million people are living forcibly displaced by war, violence, and persecution as of April 2024, the United Nations said on Thursday. The UN refugee agency UNHCR branded this ever-increasing number a ‘terrible indictment on the state of the world.’ Forced displacement globally has once again smashed records, with conflicts in places like Gaza, Sudan, and Myanmar forcing even more people to flee their homes.
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To put the immense scale in perspective, the global displaced population is now equivalent to the entire population of Japan, UNHCR pointed out.
Conflict a Major Driver
‘Conflict remains a very, very big driver of mass displacement,’ UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters. He highlighted that at the end of 2023, 117.3 million people were already displaced worldwide according to a UNHCR report. By the end of April 2024, that number had swelled further to an estimated 120 million people living in displacement situations around the globe.
Displacement Tripling in a Decade
The current 120 million displaced represents a near-tripling compared to 2012 levels. The number is up from 110 million just a year ago in 2023, continuing an alarming 12-year upward trend. This surge is being driven by a combination of new crises erupting, existing conflicts mutating, and a failure to resolve long-standing displacement situations, according to UNHCR analysis.
Grandi revealed he was ‘shocked at the high displacement figure’ when he took over as UN refugee chief eight years ago, but since then it has ‘more than doubled’ – a development he described as ‘a terrible indictment on the state of the world.’
Factors Driving Further Displacement
According to Grandi, several factors are contributing to the relentless rise in global displacement numbers:
- A palpable increase in the number of crises and conflicts around the world in recent years.
- The impact of climate change spurring population movements and driving conflicts that lead to displacement.
- Last year alone, UNHCR had to declare 43 emergencies across 29 countries – more than four times what was common just a few years prior.
- The ‘way conflicts are conducted…in complete disregard’ of international laws, often deliberately terrorizing civilian populations.
- ‘This of course is a powerful contributor to more displacement,’ Grandi stated.
Displaced People Worldwide
- 2023: 117.3m displaced people worldwide
- 2024: 120m displaced people worldwide
Internally Displaced Majority
Despite the already catastrophic scale, Grandi acknowledged there currently seems to be little prospect of reversing the upward displacement trend anytime soon. “Unless there is a shift in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see the figure continuing to go up,” he warned.
Of the 117.3 million displaced globally at the end of 2023, a staggering 68.3 million people were internally displaced within their own countries, UNHCR’s latest report showed. Meanwhile, the number of refugees and others requiring international protection and admission to third countries climbed to 43.4 million.
Dispelling Myths About Host Countries
UNHCR pushed back against the perception that wealthy nations are bearing the brunt of the displacement crisis. “The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighboring their own, with 75 percent residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 percent of the world’s income,” the agency said.
Major Displacement Crises in 2023
Spotlight on Major Crises
Several major displacement crises in 2023 drove the precipitous global rise:
- Sudan’s civil war displaced over 9 million more people since fighting erupted in April 2023 between rival generals, leaving nearly 11 million Sudanese uprooted by year’s end. Displacement numbers continued climbing into 2024 as ‘hundreds and hundreds’ fled every day to neighboring Chad – already one of the world’s poorest nations yet taking in some 600,000 Sudanese refugees over just 14 months.
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar, millions more people were newly displaced within their countries last year due to vicious conflicts.
- The war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s attack inside Israel in October displaced an estimated 1.7 million people – a staggering 75% of Gaza’s population.
- In Ukraine, around 750,000 people became newly displaced inside the country in 2023 alone due to Russia’s ongoing invasion that began in February 2022. By year’s end, there were 3.7 million Ukrainians internally displaced, while over 6 million became refugees or asylum seekers – an increase of 275,000 compared to 2022.
- Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis overall, with 13.8 million people forcibly displaced inside and outside the country.
Conclusion
The UN described the situation as a ‘human tragedy on a massive scale’, with millions violently uprooted and struggling for survival as refugees and internally displaced people highly vulnerable to insecurity, and lack of food, water, shelter, and medical care. The sheer numbers represent an indictment of the world’s failure to prevent and resolve conflicts.
