Conflicts drive number of forcibly displaced people to record high

The number of people forced out of their homes around the world last year was the equivalent of the population of London, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

The latest annual assessment from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said a sharp rise in the number of people forcibly displaced during 2023 had brought the total to a record high of more than 117 million. Conflicts were largely to blame with many, such as those in Ukraine and Sudan, showing little sign of ending.

Widespread violence meant that the 8.8 million people forcibly displaced in 2023 – nearly the same as the UK capital’s population – eclipsed the previous record, set the year before, after a series of year-on-year increases over the past 12 years.

In total, 1.5% of the world’s population is now forcibly displaced – nearly double the proportion of a decade ago.

The UNHCR – which said its figures included refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and others in need of international protection – warned that the total had continued to increase in the first four months of this year and was already likely to have exceeded 120 million, more than twice the population of Italy.

Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said: “Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanise the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement.”

The UN agency said a fifth of those forcibly displaced were now in the poorest countries in the world, such as Chad and Sudan.

However, the world’s largest recipient of new asylum applications, at 1.2 million, was the US. Next, with 329,000 applications, was Germany, where migration has become a dominant topic of political debate and is credited with helping the far right perform strongly in the recent European elections.

The UNHCR also found that a disproportionate number of children were affected, with minors making up 40% of all forcibly displaced people, despite accounting for just 30% of the world’s population.

During the year, the global refugee population increased by 7% to reach 43.4 million, driven by conflict in Gaza, with 6 million Palestinian refugees among the total, and in Sudan, where 10.8 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of last year, a number growing by thousands each day.