A report from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) released on Thursday, says that more people than ever before were forcibly displaced worldwide in May due to war, conflict, violence, and persecution.
The UNHCR said that in May, 120 million people were displaced globally, almost 10 per cent more than the previous year, and some 1.5 per cent of the world’s population.
According to the UNHCR, more than two-thirds of the refugees have been internally displaced.
Two-thirds of those who had fled abroad remain in neighbouring countries, under often difficult conditions, in the hope of quickly returning to their home countries.
In 2023, the United States and Germany were the top destinations for those seeking long-term protection, with Germany receiving the second-highest number of asylum applications after the US.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country.
It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020. UNHC was created in 1950 to address the refugee crisis that resulted from World War II.
dpa/NAN
