GENEVA, June 18 ------ Global displacement numbers has been pushed above 100 million for the first time, and a top United Nations official warns the resulting hunger crisis could force many more to flee their homes.
Efforts to address the global food insecurity crisis are "of paramount importance...to prevent a larger number of people moving," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters. "If you ask me how many...I don't know, but it will be pretty big numbers," he said. His comments came as he presented his agency's annual report on global displacement, showing that a record 89.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2021, more than double in a decade. "Every year of the last decade, the numbers have climbed," Grandi said. "Either the international community comes together to take action to address this human tragedy, resolve conflicts and find lasting solutions, or this terrible trend will continue."
The refugee agency found that at the end of 2021, a record 27.1 million people were living as refugees, while the number of asylum seekers rose 11 percent to 4.6 million. And for the 15th straight year, the number of people living displaced within their own country due to conflict swelled, hitting 53.2 million. The agency report said last year was notable for the number of protracted conflicts in places like Afghanistan that escalated, even as new ones flared. At the same time, growing food scarcity, inflation and the climate crisis were adding to the hardship and stretching the humanitarian response, threatening to weaken already dire funding levels for many crises, the UN office warned. That has not been the case in Ukraine, with an enormous outpouring of solidarity, and fleeing Ukrainians welcomed with open arms across Europe.
Grandi hailed the generous response to this crisis, but highlighted the contrast to how refugees fleeing wars in places like Syria and Afghanistan have been met. The UN refugee chief recalled how European leaders had insisted "it's full" when asked to take in more refugees from those conflicts. "I'm not naive. I fully understand the context," he said, adding, though, that the generous response to fleeing Ukrainians "proves an important point. ...The arrival of desperate people on the shores or at the borders of rich countries is not unmanageable."
Grandi also pointed to how massive sums of money had been made immediately available to respond to the Ukraine crisis, despite countries' insistence their coffers were empty when met with appeals for more aid for other situations. "There cannot be inequity in the response," he said. Countries have vowed the aid provided for Ukraine would come on top of amounts pledged for other crises, but Grandi cautioned that, so far, "the mathematics doesn't show that." It would be disastrous if already underfunded responses were cut further, he warned.
He voiced particular concern for the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, where massive displacement is being driven by a macabre combination of conflict, insecurity, poor governance and devastating effects of climate change. "It's a very vicious circle of many factors," he said.
Source: manilatimes.net
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