WUNRN
DISPLACED WOMEN & CHILDREN
The often-cited statistic that as many as 80 per cent of displaced populations are women and children fails to convey the complete devastation that displacement visits upon women and communities. Leaving homes, property and community behind renders women vulnerable to violence, disease and food scarcity, whether they flee willingly or unwillingly. Internally displaced women face additional dangers as they are often invisible to the international community within the context of violent conflict. Camps for refugees and the internally displaced have been criticized for not addressing women’s needs and concerns in their design and procedure. Failure to account for women’s security and health needs can make a camp that was intended to provide refuge a dangerous and deadly place for women and girls.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UN Refugee Agency – UNHCR - http://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html
Worldwide
Displacement Hits All-Time High as War & Persecution Increase-Displaced
Women & Children
© UNHCR - Global Trends 2014
GENEVA,
June 18, 2015 (UNHCR) – Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people
than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge
and safety elsewhere, according to a new report from the UN refugee agency.
UNHCR's
annual Global Trends Report: World at War, released on Thursday (June 18), said
that worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded. It said the
number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a
staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5
million a decade ago.
The
increase represents the biggest leap ever seen in a single year. Moreover, the
report said the situation was likely to worsen still further.
Globally,
one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or
seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the
world's 24th biggest.
"We
are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the
scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now
clearly dwarfing anything seen before," said UN High Commissioner for
Refugees António Guterres.
Since
early 2011, the main reason for the acceleration has been the war in Syria, now
the world's single-largest driver of displacement. Every day last year on
average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced,
a four-fold increase in just four years.
"It
is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those
starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the
international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve
peace," Guterres added.
The
UNHCR report detailed how in region after region, the number of refugees and
internally displaced people is on the rise. In the past five years, at least 15
conflicts have erupted or reignited: eight in Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Central
African Republic, Libya, Mali, northeastern Nigeria, Democratic Republic of
Congo, South Sudan and this year in Burundi); three in the Middle East (Syria,
Iraq, and Yemen); one in Europe (Ukraine) and three in Asia (Kyrgyzstan, and in
several areas of Myanmar and Pakistan).
"Few
of these crises have been resolved and most still generate new
displacement," the report noted, adding that in 2014 only 126,800 refugees
were able to return to their home countries -- the lowest number in 31 years.
Meanwhile,
decades-old instability and conflict in Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere
means that millions of people remain on the move or – as is
increasingly common – stranded for years on the edge of society as long-term
internally displaced or refugees.
One
of the most recent and highly visible consequences of the world's conflicts and
the terrible suffering they cause has been the dramatic growth in the numbers of
refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, including on the
Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, and in Southeast Asia.
Half
of all refugees are children
The
Global Trends report detailed that in 2014 alone 13.9 million people became
newly displaced – four times the number of the previous year. Worldwide there were 19.5
million refugees (up from 16.7 million in 2013), 38.2 million were displaced
inside their own countries (up from 33.3 million in 2013), and 1.8 million
people were awaiting the outcome of claims for asylum (against 1.2 million in
2013).
Most
alarmingly, however, it showed that over half the world's refugees are
children.
"With
huge shortages of funding and wide gaps in the global regime for protecting
victims of war, people in need of compassion, aid and refuge are being
abandoned," warned Guterres. "For an age of unprecedented mass
displacement, we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed
global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and
persecution."
Syria
is the world's biggest producer of both internally displaced people (7.6
million) and refugees (3.88 million at the end of 2014). Afghanistan (2.59
million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source
countries.
Almost
nine out of every 10 refugees (86 per cent) are in regions and countries
considered economically less developed.
Europe
(up 51%)
Conflict
in Ukraine, a record 219,000 Mediterranean crossings, and the large number of
Syrian refugees in Turkey – which in 2014 became the world's top
refugee-hosting nation with 1.59 million Syrian refugees at year's end – brought
increased public attention, both positive and negative, to questions to do with
refugees.
In
the EU, the biggest volume of asylum applications was in Germany and Sweden.
Overall, forced displacement numbers in Europe totalled 6.7 million at the end
of the year, compared to 4.4 million at the end of 2013, and with the largest
proportion of this being Syrians in Turkey and Ukrainians in the Russian
Federation.
Middle
East and North Africa (up 19%)
Syria's
ongoing war, with 7.6 million people displaced internally, and 3.88 million
people displaced into the surrounding region and beyond as refugees, has alone
made the Middle East the world's largest producer and host of forced
displacement. Adding to the high totals from Syria was a new displacement of
least 2.6 million people in Iraq and 309,000 newly displaced in Libya.
Sub-Saharan
Africa (Up 17%)
Africa's
numerous conflicts, including in Central African Republic, South Sudan,
Somalia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, together produced
immense forced displacement totals in 2014, on a scale only marginally lower
than in the Middle East.
In
all, sub-Saharan Africa saw 3.7 million refugees and 11.4 million internally
displaced people, 4.5 million of whom were newly displaced in 2014. The 17 per
cent overall increase excludes Nigeria, as methodology for counting internal
displacement changed during 2014 and it could not be reliably calculated.
Ethiopia replaced Kenya as the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and
the fifth largest worldwide.
Asia
(up 31%)
Long
one of the world's major displacement producing regions, the number of refugees
and internally displaced people in Asia grew by 31 per cent in 2014 to 9
million people. Continuing displacement was also seen in and from Myanmar in
2014, including of Rohingya from Rakhine state and in the Kachin and Northern
Shan regions. Iran and Pakistan remained two of the world's top four refugee
hosting countries.
Americas
(up 12%)
The
Americas also saw a rise in forced displacement. The number of Colombian
refugees dropped by 36,300 to 360,300 over the year, although mainly because of
a revision in the numbers of refugees reported by Venezuela. Colombia
continued, nonetheless to have one of the world's largest internally displaced
populations, reported at 6 million people and with 137,000 Colombians being newly
displaced during the year. With more people fleeing gang violence or other
forms of persecution in Central America, the United States saw 36,800 more
asylum claims than in 2013, representing growth of 44 per cent.
The
full Global Trends report with this information and more, and including data on
individual countries, demographics, numbers of people returning to their
countries, and available estimates of stateless population is available at http://unhcr.org/556725e69.html.