World Refugee Population Surges to Nearly 60 MILLION by the End of 2014

Migrants sleep in Ventimiglia, on the Italian border with 
France, this month. The migrant crisis has created tensions 
among EU members. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency

U.N. reports number of asylum seekers, refugees or people forced to leave home is at postwar high

Nearly 60 million people around the world had been displaced by persecution and conflict by the end of last year, a postwar high that has stymied the international community, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In its annual report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees disclosed a surge in the number of asylum seekers, refugees entitled to international protection and internally displaced people forced to leave their homes to avoid persecution.

An Afghan girl stands on a road after crossing the 
Hungarian-Serbian border in June. Hungary’s government 
on Wednesday said it plans to build a 13-foot-high security 
fence running the full length of the country’s border with Serbia. 
Photo: Reuters

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The 60 million figure is up from 51 million the year before and 60% higher than a decade ago.

“We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of [displaced people] as well as the response is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

Macedonia: Migrants' dangerous journey through 
Europe on foot

The UNHCR said the outbreak of new conflicts—at least 15 in the past five years— in Africa, the Middle East and Asia has compounded decades-old instability in countries such as Afghanistan. Conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya have driven the biggest number of refugees.

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... Syrians, driven by four years of war in their country, were the largest single group of refugees last year, overtaking Afghans who had been the lead group for more than 30 years. This doesn’t include 5.1 million Palestinian refugees. ...

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