Refugee Crisis Reaches Alarming Level
As more than 50 million people are driven away from home due to war and other crisis, the international community is bearing the burden of global refugee increase.
In her remarks in New York, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said more than 50 million people have been driven from their homes, and forced to seek refuge from violent conflict, political, religious or ethnic persecution and natural disasters.
The number has topped all previous records for the first time since World War II.
Trends Are Alarming
According to the UN, refugee numbers reached 16.7 million people worldwide, the highest since 2001.
Syria is the hardest hit by this problem. Since 2011, Syria has gone from being the world’s second largest refugee-hosting country to being its second largest refugee-producing country.
Just this month, more than 300,000 people fled from ISIS violence in Mosul.
Burma is also confronted by suffering and unacceptable conditions in internally displaced camps in the country.
The world’s top refugee hosts are now Pakistan, Iran and Lebanon.
The regions with the largest refugee populations were Asia and the Pacific, with a total of 3.5 million people.
The number of refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa totaled 2.9 million. While in the Middle East and North Africa, there are 2.6 million refugees.
War Is The Culprit
The astounding increase was driven largely by the war in Syria.
Since March 2011, a total of 2.5 million people have fled Syria, with 6.5 million more displaced inside the country.
In addition, the Central African Republic and South Sudan crises have also triggered massive displacement among civilians.
US Is World’s Leading Provider Of Aid
According to Ms. Psaki, the United States has provided more than $2 billion to provide safety, food, shelter, and medical treatment to over 4.7 million inside Syria, to more than 2.8 million refugees in the region and to communities in neighboring countries hosting refugees.
The US provided $5 billion in 2013 to address the global humanitarian crisis.
In addition, the United States also permanently resettled more refugees than all other countries combined. In fact, nearly 70,000 refugees from 65 nations found a new home in the United States last year.
The biggest refugee populations under UNHCR care came from Afghanistan, Syrian and Somalia, who together form over half the global refugee total.
