UNHCR Report on Forced Displacement in 2021

Forced Displacement in 2021: Relevance

• GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

UNHCR report: Context

• Recently, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has released a new report titled, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2021 where it has said that the number of people forced to flee has more than doubled by the end of 2021 as compared to 2012.

Forced Displacement in 2021: Key points

• The number of people forced to flee due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order increased to around 90 million by the end of 2021.
• The number of people displaced by conflict, violence, persecution and human rights abuses rose for the tenth straight year in 2021 to reach the highest level since records began.
• It represents a sharp 8 per cent increase of almost 7 million people in the span of just 12 months.
• 1 in 88 people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2021. This compares with 1 in 167 at the end of 2012.

Reasons of forced displacement

• Since the start of this year, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide to over 100 million.
• Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, which caused widespread displacement within the country and across borders.
• Conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia forced at least 2.5 million people to flee within the country, with some 1.5 million returning to their homes later in the year.
• Violent insurgencies in the Central Sahel region of Africa sparked fresh internal displacement, particularly in Burkina Faso and Chad.
• In Myanmar, a military takeover in February 2021 caused violence that forced many to flee, while the number of Venezuelans displaced abroad grew by more than 500,000 last year.

Forced displacement in India

• The report has said that around five million people in India were internally displaced due to climate change and disasters in 2021.
• The largest displacements in the context of disasters in 2021 occurred in China (6.0 million), the Philippines (5.7 million) and India (4.9 million).

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