The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide has risen sharply for the 12th consecutive year, reaching 120 million in 2023, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The UNHCR stated on Thursday that the new figure represented “historic new levels.” It claimed the data reflected both new and changing conflicts and “failure to resolve longstanding” crises.
The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan.
The agency pointed to the conflict in Sudan as “a key factor driving the figures higher, as since April 2023, more than 7.1 million new displacements have been recorded in the country, with another 1.9 million outside.” At the end of 2023, a total of 10.8 million Sudanese had been uprooted from the country.
Furthermore, the report revealed that millions of people were displaced from their homes last year as a result of brutal fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar. Citing estimates by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), UNHCR stated that “catastrophic violence” had displaced up to 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip.
However, it noted that Syria remained “the world’s largest displacement crisis.” 13.8 million people had to move in and out of the country. Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said:
Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanize the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement. It is high time for warring parties to respect the basic laws of war and international law.
The largest increase in the number of displaced persons was due to persons fleeing conflict but remaining in their country of origin. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, that number had risen to 68.3 million. This represents an increase of almost 50 per cent over the past five years.
The report showed that globally, more than five million internally displaced persons and one million refugees returned to their places of origin in 2023.
Solutions are out there – we’ve seen countries like Kenya lead the way in refugee inclusion – but it takes real commitment.
