United Nations:
A food security crisis, fueled by the war in Ukraine, will force more people to flee their homes in poorer countries, further increasing record levels of global displacement, the head of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.
A report from the UN body on Thursday found that by the end of 2021, some 89.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, abuse and violence. Since then, millions more have fled or been displaced within its borders, with price hikes linked to blocked grain exports set to cause more displacement elsewhere.
“If you have a food crisis on top of everything I have described – war, human rights, climate – it will only accelerate the trends I have described in this report,” Filippo Grandi told journalists this week, describing the numbers as “staggering.” “.
“Clearly the impact will be quite devastating if this is not resolved soon.” More people had already been displaced as a result of price hikes and violent uprisings in Africa’s Sahel region, he said.
Overall, the number of displaced persons has increased every year over the past decade, the UNHCR report said. That is now more than double the 42.7 million people who displaced in 2012.
Grandi also criticized what he called a “monopoly” of resources given to Ukraine while other programs to help the displaced were underfunded.
“Ukraine should not make us forget other crises,” he said, referring to a two-year-old conflict in Ethiopia and a drought in the Horn of Africa.
The European Union’s response to refugee crises has been “unequal,” Grandi added. He compared the interstate bickering over the inclusion of small groups of migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat to the generosity of EU countries with Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion in February.
“It certainly turns out to be an important point: responding to the influx of refugees, to the arrival of desperate people on the coasts or borders of rich countries is not unmanageable,” he said. The report says that by the end of 2021, low- and middle-income countries will host 83% of the world’s refugees.
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