UN: Refugees, displaced at 20-year high

War and other crises drove one person from their home every 4.1 seconds in 2012, the United Nations’ (UN) refugee agency said Wednesday, June 19, pushing the number of people forcibly displaced to a two-decade high of 45.2 million. The UNCHR reports that 1.1 million people fled across international borders in 2012, while 6.5 million were displaced within their homelands. “War is the main reason for this very high number of refugees and people internally displaced. Fifty-five percent of them correspond to the well-known situations of Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria,” said UN high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres. Overall, Afghanistan remained the world’s top producer of refugees, a position it has held for 32 years. Worldwide, one refugee in four is Afghan. While last year saw 2.1 million internally-displaced people and 526,000 refugees return home, as well as the resettlement of 88,6000 in rich nations, fresh crises drove the global total higher.

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