Friday, December 18, 2015: The number of internally and cross-border displaced people this year is expected to surpass 60 million mark by the end of December, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.
“Forced displacement is now profoundly affecting our times. It touches the lives of millions of our fellow human beings—both those forced to flee and those who provide them with shelter and protection,” António Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.
The influx this year is mainly headed toward the neighboring countries of these conflict zones, however, Europe is also experiencing a huge flow of migrants due to the war conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
The major instigating stimulus in the process is the high-tension multi-directional civil war in Syria and Islamic State-initiated terrorism against Muslims and Christians in the captured areas in Syria and Iraq.
This year the number of refugees is expected to cross the one million mark or even exceed it by the end of December, which would mark the highest number of migrants in the recorded history in numbers and the highest rate in the last three decades.
“2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement exceeding 60 million for the first time – 1 in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes,” the statement said.
One out of eight people who are born this year have been given birth in a war zone, the report said. With 16 million newborns, the rejection to migrants is not only unethical but also inhumane. However, the huge influx of these displaced people has also raised the risk of terrorism in peaceful regions, Paris is one of the examples, and moreover the crisis of refugees is also being politicized.
“Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything,” Guterressaid.
“I mean hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, not just what has been discussed until now in relation to resettlement,” he told a news conference. “If this is not put in place and the tragedy in the Aegean goes on and the Balkan chaotic situation goes on, I must say I am very worried for the future of the European asylum system”.
Some of the reason for the increase in the rate of refugees, other than Syria and Islamic State, are Ukraine civil war; Yemen coup; South Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo war conflicts. Myanmar civil, not in the same time zones also instigated a big wave of refugees who were forced to live in the ocean for weeks.
The rate of safely returning persons to their home countries is also very low. Against the 107,000 people return home safely last year, this year in the same period, the number of refugees returning home has decreased to 87,000.
“We see flows so strong this late in the year that perhaps by Tuesday, perhaps even before then, IOM estimates the 1 million mark will pass… This is extraordinary,” IOM spokesman Joel Millman told reporters.
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