Record 65.3 Million People Were Displaced Last Year: UNHCR
One in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee.
06/20/2016 03:28 am ET


GENEVA (Reuters) - A record 65.3 million people were uprooted worldwide last year, many of them fleeing wars only to face walls, tougher laws and xenophobia as they reach borders, the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday.

The figure, which jumped from 59.5 million in 2014 and by 50 percent in five years, means that 1 in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee, asylum-seeker or internally displaced in a home country.


Fighting in Syria, Afghanistan, Burundi and South Sudan has driven the latest exodus, bringing the total number of refugees to 21.3 million, half of them children, the UNHCR said in its “Global Trends” report marking World Refugee Day.

“The refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean and arriving on the shores of Europe, the message that they have carried is that if you don’t solve problems, problems will come to you,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news briefing.

“It’s painful that it has taken so long for people in the rich countries to understand that,” he said. “We need action, political action to stop conflicts, that would be the most important prevention of refugee flows.”

A record 2 million new asylum claims were lodged in industrialized countries in 2015, the report said. Nearly 100,000 were children unaccompanied or separated from their families, a three-fold rise on 2014 and a historic high.

Germany, where one in three applicants was Syrian, led with 441,900 claims, followed by the United States with 172,700, many of them fleeing gang and drug-related violence in Mexico and Central America.

Developing regions still host 86 percent of the world’s refugees, led by Turkey with 2.5 million Syrians, followed by Pakistan and Lebanon, the report said. "2015: 65.3m were displaced, compared to 59.5m just 12 months earlier"
“RISE OF XENOPHOBIA”

Asylum-seekers fleeing conflicts or persecution are increasingly confronted with walls or anti-foreigner sentiment, Grandi said. “The rise of xenophobia is unfortunately becoming a very defining feature of the environment in which we work.

“Barriers are rising everywhere - and I’m not just talking of walls. But I’m talking about legislative barriers that are coming up, including in countries in the industrialized world that have been for a long time bastions of principle in defending the fundamental rights linked to asylum.”

After Balkan countries closed borders, Turkey and the European Union (EU) struck a deal in March to stem an influx that brought a million refugees and migrants to Europe in 2015.

“The fact that that flow has stopped does not mean the problem of displacement has ended. It may have ended for some countries that don’t have to deal with it anymore, for now,” Grandi said.

Progress has lagged on a scheme to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other EU states to alleviate pressure on the two frontline countries. Only 2,406 people have been relocated, EU figures show.

Grandi, asked about stalled relocation, said: “There is no Plan B for Europe. Europe will continue to receive people seeking asylum.”

“Everybody has to share responsibility now,” he said.

Response

Recently, United Nations refugee agency made a report that a record of 65.3 million people were displaced  worldwide last year. this significant number has esclated from 59.5 million in 2014 to 65.3 million this year. with this number, the article reports that 1 in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee, asylum-seeker or internally displaced in a home country. The source behind why the number of migrants and refugees increased is due to conflicts that are going on in in Syria, Afghanistan, Burundi and South Sudan.  Due to these countries the total number of refugees from these countries count to 21.3 million, half of them children. In addition to the conflicts and wars that take place in there homelands, another struggle for the migrants and refugees face is the xenophobia, the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. in many countries such as, Greece, the US, and many others are hesitant to help foreigners. Overall, when it comes to my opinion of this article, I can clear see that the bias is against countries that are xenophobic. Furthermore, I also find myself agreeing to this article since it addresses the problem that if people don't solve the problem now, the problem with eventually turn up in front your door.


citation:

Nebehay, Stephanie. "Record 65.3 Million People Were Displaced Last Year: UNHCR." Huffington Post. N.p., 20 June 2016. Web. 20 June 2016.
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