60 mn people displaced due to wars, conflict by 2014: UN

A record 60 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide due to wars, persecution and conflict by 2014, an average of 42,500 individuals per day last year, enough to form the world’s 24th largest country, the UN said on Thursday.

The figure marked a rise of 8.3 million persons over the previous year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in new data as it released its annual ‘Global Trends Report: World at War’. India as a country of origin had 10,433 refugees and 16,709 asylum seekers with pending cases in <g data-gr-id="22">2014; and</g> 1,99,937 refugees and 5,074 pending cases of asylum seekers as <g data-gr-id="21">country</g> of asylum for the same year. Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally <g data-gr-id="20">displaced,</g> or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world’s 24th biggest, the report said.

Every day last year on average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced, a four-fold increase in just four years.

Of the 59.5 million people forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence, or human rights violations by last year end, 19.5 million were refugees, 38.2 million were internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 1.8 million were asylum-seekers. Of these 19.5 million refugees, around 5.1 million are Palestinians while Syrians, Somalis and Afghans made for more than half the remaining 14.4 million refugees, UNHCR said.