UN Secretary General Guterres had hoped that the world-threatening coronavirus would shake people up and end conflicts.
A fallacy, as the new UNHCR refugee report shows.
Geneva (dpa) - Regardless of the corona pandemic, more people around the world were on the run than ever before.
At the end of 2020, practically as many people were displaced from their homeland due to conflict, persecution and violence as Germany has residents.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spoke in Geneva of 82.4 million.
That was four percent more than in 2019 and twice as many as ten years ago.
Climate change is also driving more and more people to flight because they can no longer survive in their homeland, reported UNHCR.
"Behind every number there is a person, a story of displacement, dispossession and suffering," said the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
"They deserve our attention and support, not only through humanitarian aid, but also by helping us find a solution to their need."
Limits closed due to pandemic
Because many countries closed their borders in the pandemic, fewer refugees have found a new home than in almost two decades.
Only 34,400 people could be resettled in 21 countries - about a third as many as in the previous year.
According to the UNHCR, 1.4 million people actually needed such places.
Well over half of the people were displaced in their own country.
Those who fled abroad mostly stayed in neighboring countries.
86 percent were taken in by developing countries.
Minors make up around 30 percent of the world's population, but 42 percent of refugees.
Little signs of improvement
Grandi sees little sign of improvement. None of the old crises - Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela - has been resolved. Despite calls from UN Secretary General António Guterres to end conflicts in view of the global health threat posed by the coronavirus and to move closer together as humanity, new crises have broken out, for example in the Tigray region of Ethiopia or in northern Mozambique. According to the UNHCR, the desolate situation in some countries - including South Sudan, Syria and the Central African Republic - is even threatening to lead to famine.
The solutions to crises that drive people to flight would of course have to be found in the refugees' home countries, Grandi said.
But in the meantime, solidarity is needed.
In times of Corona it became difficult.
“The fact that people move from A to B is now seen as a threat, even life-threatening, because the virus moves with people.
But for those fleeing conflict and persecution, this is life, ”he said.
The number of refugees is high, but the world is able to help them.
Erecting walls or sending boats back on the high seas does not solve the problems.
Germany offers protection to 1.2 million people
Germany is one of the most generous of the host countries: According to UNHCR figures, it offered protection to 1.2 million people.
Only Turkey (3.7 million), Colombia (1.7 million), Pakistan (1.4 million) and Uganda (1.4 million) took in more people.
More than two-thirds of those who fled abroad came from just five countries: Syria (6.7 million), Venezuela (4 million).
Afghanistan (2.6 million), South Sudan (2.2 million), Myanmar (1.1 million).
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210618-99-42894 / 2
