Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted, for the first time, the number of people forcibly uprooted from their homeland to break the hundred million barrier globally, the United Nations announced today (photo, above, by Reuters/Yannis Behrakis).
Black record
"The number of people who have been forced to flee to escape armed conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution has surpassed the staggering 100 million mark for the first time, due to the war in Ukraine and other deadly armed conflicts," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release issued today.
"The figure of 100 million is frightening, a source of concern and food for thought. It is a record that should never have been broken," said UNHCR High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grady.
"It should be an alarm signal that will allow us to resolve and prevent destructive conflicts, to put an end to persecution and to fight against the root causes that force innocent people to flee their homes," he warned.
The situation was already very serious, UNHCR statistics reveal. By the end of 2021, the number of people uprooted around the world had reached 90 million, due to new waves of violence or prolonged wars in countries such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan, DR Congo.
The invasion of Ukraine
And then, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which threw millions more people into the street, forced them to flee their homes to escape the fighting, to go either to other parts of the country, where hostilities are not so fierce, or to other states.
Europe has not seen such a large influx of refugees since the end of World War II. Some 6.5 million Ukrainians fled their homeland, mostly women and children, with men of military age left behind. The UN reckons they may reach 8.3 million by the end of the year.
In Ukraine itself, it is estimated that another 8 million are internally displaced.
Since the Russian invasion, Ukraine counts 37 million people in government-controlled areas. This number excludes Crimea (south), the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, and the eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Over 1% of the world's population
The 100 million uprooted people represent over 1% of the world's population, while only 13 countries on the planet have a population greater than this number, the High Commissioner reminds us, to give a better idea of the scale of the phenomenon.
"The reaction of the international community towards the people who fled to save themselves from the war in Ukraine has been extremely positive," he hailed. "Compassion is still alive," however "similar mobilization is needed for all other crises in the world," he pointed out."
The generosity and state aid to refugees from Ukraine stands in diametrical contrast to the very different reception of refugees from other theatres of war, such as Afghanistan, or Syria.
In any case, the UNHCR chief reminds that "humanitarian assistance is a palliative, not a cure" and adds that "to reverse the trend, the only answers are peace and stability, so that innocent people are not forced to choose" between the risk of being killed by wars and flight or unimaginably difficult exile.
"Never so bad" situation
Last Friday, Mr. Grady criticized the twenty or so countries which, two years and counting since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic, continue to keep their borders closed to asylum seekers in the name of health security. He added that he suspected they were using the pandemic as a pretext.
A report by two NGOs published on May 19 counted nearly 60 million internally displaced people in the world last year, many of whom fled their homes because of natural disasters.
The situation in the world "has never been so bad," observed Jan Egeland, secretary general of one of the NGOs, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). "The world is falling apart," he summed up."
Source: ARC
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