UN: Number of People Forced to Flee Homes Amid Pandemic Has Risen

By Staff, Agencies

The number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution and human rights abuses has doubled in the past decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of last year, the United Nations said on Friday.

"In the year of COVID, in a year in which movement was practically impossible for most of us... 3 million more people have been forcibly displaced," the United Nations [UN] High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters.

Nearly 70% of those affected are from just five countries — Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar — according to the annual report on forced displacement by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

"Trends have unfortunately continued. So, if we had to work to update the figures... for the first six months of 2021, we will probably see a further increase from that 82.4 million," said Grandi. Around 42 percent of those displaced were children.

The increase in those uprooted from their homes was partly fueled by new flashpoints, including northern Mozambique, West Africa's Sahel region, and Ethiopia's Tigray, along with flare-ups in long-running conflicts in Afghanistan and Somalia, he added.