The world has increased the number of refugees, internally displaced persons and persons trying to get refuge in other countries. This is stated in the report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Interfax reports.
According to the organization, the number of people trying to receive asylum in other countries amounted to more than 84 million people. The report is prepared on the basis of data obtained in the end of June 2021. It is noted that the indicator increased by 2 million compared with the recorded in this regard 2020.
In particular, by the beginning of July 2021, 26.5 million people were in the status of refugees, including 6.6 million Syrians, 5.7 million Palestinians and 2.7 million Afghans.
Also 4.4 million people in the world are registered as applicants for refuge.
According to the UN report, by the end of June 2021, there were 51 million internally displaced persons in the world, while 48 million were previously accounted for six months.
At the same time, in the first half of 2021, there was an increase in the number of displaced persons, especially in Africa: conflicts in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo forced more than 1 million people in each of these countries to become internally displaced persons. Similar problems are marked in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Mozambique and South Sudan.
From January to June 2021, more than 4.3 million people were forced to switch to the category of internally displaced persons: this is 50% more compared to the same rates of the first half of 2020.