UN: For the first time, more than 100 million people are uprooted worldwide

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed for the first time the number of people forcibly uprooted from their country to break the barrier of one hundred million worldwide, the United Nations announced today.

“The number of people forced to flee to escape armed conflict, violence, human rights abuses and persecution has reached a staggering 100 million for the first time because of the war in Ukraine and other deadly weapons. “, stressed in the press release published today by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Black record

“The number of 100 million is frightening, a source of concern and food for thought. It is a record that should never have been broken,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grady.

“It must be an alarm signal that will allow us to resolve and prevent catastrophic conflicts, end persecution and fight the root causes that lead innocent people to flee their homes,” he warned.

The situation was already very serious, according to UNHCR statistics. At the end of 2021, the number of people uprooted worldwide reached 90 million, due to new waves of violence or protracted wars in countries such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan, DR Congo .

And then, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which threw millions of people into the streets, forcing them to flee their homes to escape the fighting, or to go to other parts of the country. where hostilities are less severe, or in other states.

Europe has experienced such a large influx of refugees since the end of World War II. Some 6.5 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland, mostly women and children, leaving men of military age behind. The UN estimates that they may reach 8.3 million by the end of the year.

In Ukraine itself, another 8 million are estimated to be internally displaced.

Following the Russian invasion, Ukraine counted 37 million people in government-controlled areas. Excluded from this number are Crimea (south), the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, and the eastern regions, which are controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

More than 1% of the world’s population

The 100 million uprooted represent more than 1% of the world’s population, while only 13 countries on the planet have a population larger than that number, reminds the UNHCR, to give a better idea of ​​the extent of the phenomenon.

“The reaction of the international community to the people who fled to escape the war in Ukraine has been extremely positive,” Grady said. “Compassion is still alive,” but “similar mobilization is needed for all the other crises in the world,” he said.

“The world is collapsing”

The generosity and state aid provided to refugees by Ukraine is in stark contrast to the very different reception of refugees from other theaters of war, such as Afghanistan or Syria.

In each case, they have seized it, despite obstacles we can scarcely imagine. ” in danger of being killed due to wars and flight or unimaginably difficult exile.

Last Friday, Mr. Grady criticized the nearly twenty countries that, two years after the outbreak of the new coronavirus, continue to keep their borders closed to asylum seekers in the name of health insurance. He added that he suspected that they were using the pandemic as a pretext.

A report by two NGOs released on May 19 counted nearly 60 million internally displaced people in the world last year, many of whom fled their homes due to natural disasters. The situation in the world “has never been so bad”, remarked the general secretary of one, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Eggeland. “The world is collapsing,” he said.

SOURCE: AMPE