June 20 is the international date that commemorates refugees. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than five million Ukrainians have fled their country and nearly seven million are internally displaced. Likewise, global warming and hunger are other causes of the increase in the number of refugees in the last decade.
This century has been marked by forced displacement. From 2011 to 2021 alone, the number of refugees doubled from 43 million to 89 million due to multiple armed conflicts such as the bloody wars in Syria and Yemen, or ethnic conflicts on the African continent and Southeast Asia; going through the political and economic instability in countries like Venezuela.
The war in Ukraine after the Russian invasion led to the world breaking a record in 2022, registering a total of 100 million refugees.
The High Commissioner of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, traveled on this day to the Ivory Coast, an exemplary country in the fight for the return of refugees, thanks to the return of 96% of them.
From there, Grandi called the attention of world leaders and stated that “the world has to choose between joining efforts to reverse the trend of persecution, violence and wars, or accept that the legacy of the 21st century will be the incessant forced displacement” .
Despite the conflict in Ukraine, the country from which the most people have fled abroad remains Syria with 6.8 million, followed by Venezuela and Afghanistan. This forced exit implies a reception, and the countries that lead the host list are Turkey with almost four million, the majority from neighboring Syria; Colombia, with nearly two million Venezuelans; Uganda, with 1.5 million Congolese, and Pakistan with more than a million Afghans.
An increase that is not enough
Although asylum claims are directed mostly to the United States and Germany, one in 10 refugees settles in developing countries, which tend to be the closest to their countries of origin. The reception of refugees requires the joint effort of States, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the protection of human rights, and also in the economic deployment that allows a dignified reception.
However, the investment has not been enough in the face of current demands and the money is not enough, according to David Beasly, director of the World Food Program (WFP): “We are forced to make the heartbreaking decision to reduce food rations for the refugees, who depend on them to survive.
The population most affected by these cuts is childhood. UNHCR estimates that 30% of refugees are children. In turn, the hardest hit continent is Africa where food rations have already been reduced in countries served by the WFP such as Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Hunger is precisely one of the greatest causes of forced displacement in the world, because nations that experience wars generally see their food and water supply sources affected. In 2021, 67% of refugees came from countries with a food crisis.
War in Ukraine, beyond February 24
In February Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, announced the invasion of Ukraine, which unleashed a profound migration crisis in Europe like never before since World War II. But before the outbreak of this conflict, the Ukrainians had been suffering the consequences of a civil war in Donbass, the eastern region of the country, since 2014.
At the end of last year, 850,000 people had to flee to other parts of Ukraine to escape intense fighting between pro-Russian separatist forces and the Ukrainian army. Also, the Ukrainians in need of humanitarian aid almost reached the figure of three million. The Russian invasion was the straw that broke the camel’s back, causing displacement not only to be internal, but also to neighboring countries.
The main destinations of the Ukrainian refugees have been the aggressor country itself, Russia, and Poland, both with more than a million. They are followed by Germany with 780,000 and the Czech Republic with more than 300,000. Within Ukraine, 26% of the displaced are registered in the west of the country, the region least affected by the war, and in the east, because being the area most submerged in the conflict there is a large displacement of local residents fleeing from one city to another.
Unlike other migration processes, the European Union has reacted quickly and countries such as Hungary and Poland, which had historically closed their doors to refugees from the Middle East, today welcome the Ukrainian population.
The victims of climate change: the “new” refugees…
“Climate change is the crisis that defines our time”, is how the UNHCR describes the forced displacement that is being generated by natural disasters. Every year, 20 million people are forced to leave their homes due to phenomena such as floods or prolonged droughts. The most affected countries are in the southern hemisphere of the planet, many of which are already victims of political and economic conflicts.
Rachmat Witoelar, former Minister of the Environment of Indonesia, assures that in 2050 the climatic conditions will be extreme and that as a result “the 17 thousand islands of the country with their immense coasts will be swallowed by the sea.” These statements are added to the report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to which, if global warming is not combated, there will be more than a billion climate refugees within three decades.
Yet UNHCR does not recognize climate-displaced people as refugees, if there is no link to political, social or economic reasons.
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