UNITED NATIONS: A UNHCR study released on Thursday states that Afghans remain the largest group of refugees globally, with the majority seeking safety in Iran and Pakistan, continuing a trend seen in previous years.
Estimates of internally displaced people are included in the UN refugee agency’s 2024 Global Trends Report, which highlights that 2023 and 2024 experienced historically high global levels of forced relocation.
A UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) assessment is included in the study as well. It projects that 1.7 million Palestinians, or almost 75% of the Gaza Strip’s population, are internally displaced.
With 13.8 million displaced both inside and outside of its boundaries, Syria, however, now holds the record for the largest number of individuals who have been forcefully displaced.
Pakistan is one of the top five nations that host refugees.
Numerous personal tragedies are hidden behind these startling and increasing statistics. In response to the study, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stated, “This suffering must spur the international community to act urgently to tackle the core causes of forced displacement.”
According to UNHCR’s mandate, one in six refugees are Afghans. More than 6.4 million Afghans were hosted in 108 countries throughout the course of the previous year, an increase of 741,400, or 13%, over the year before.
The main cause of this increase is the rise in Afghans living in Iran (+327,300) and Pakistan (+189,800) who are effectively refugees.
Principal Host Nations
According to data from the previous year, 73% of refugees are from only five countries, and 87% are from just ten.
Iran (3.8 million), Turkey (3.3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Germany (2.6 million), and Pakistan (two million) are the main nations that receive refugees.
Nearly all migrants in Turkey are Syrians, whereas the majority of refugees in Iran and Pakistan are Afghans.
Refugees from Afghanistan
Approximately 10.9 million Afghans were still internally displaced worldwide, with the majority living in their own nation or one of its neighbors. The number of Afghan refugees rose to 6.4 million in 2023, up 741,400, mostly as a result of updated demographic figures from Pakistan and Iran.
The report continues, “Opportunities for sustainable return are limited, as millions of people remain internally displaced and nearly half of Afghanistan’s population of over 40 million faces acute food insecurity.”
Gaza’s humanitarian crises
According to the research, the civilian population of Palestine has suffered greatly as a result of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. With 2.2 million people suffering severe food insecurity and the potential for famine, the humanitarian situation is exceedingly grim.
According to UNRWA estimates, up to 1.7 million people (more than 75 percent of the population) may have been internally displaced within the Gaza Strip between October and December 2023, with many having to escape more than once.
Six million Palestinians were under UNRWA’s mission by the end of 2023, with 1.6 million of them living in the Gaza Strip. In 2023, two-thirds of these refugees were internally displaced, which made their preexisting vulnerabilities worse.
Migration in Myanmar
In 2023, over 1.3 million people were internally displaced in Myanmar as a result of escalating violence that followed the military takeover in February 2021. By the end of the year, there would be over 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country. The majority of them are Muslims from Rohingya.
The confrontation between opposing forces in Sudan, which led to the displacement of 10.8 million people by the end of 2023, is a significant factor in the concerning figures in the report.
In addition, millions of people in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were internally displaced last year. A dire picture of the global displacement situation is presented in the UNHCR’s 2024 Global Trends Report, which also underscores the pressing need for international cooperation to address the underlying causes of forced displacement.
