UN: Record 65.6m people displaced

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Jun 20, 2017 06:00 am

GENEVA Devastating conflicts, violence and persecution in places like Syria and South Sudan had left a record 65.6 million people uprooted from their homes by the end of last year, the UN said yesterday.

That number marks a jump of just 300,000 from the end of 2015, but is more than 6 million higher than at the end of 2014, according to a fresh report published by the UN refugee agency.

This is "the highest figure since we started recording these figures," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said ahead of the report's launch. "By any measure, this is an unacceptable number, and it speaks louder than ever to the need for solidarity and common purpose in preventing and resolving crises."

The figures released ahead of World Refugee Day today showed that 10.3 million of the world's displaced people fled their homes last year alone, including 3.4 million who crossed international borders to become refugees. - AFP