Syria ranks second in the number of internally displaced people

A new report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reviewed the significant increase in the number of refugees worldwide. The report stated that, as of the end of April last year, 120 million refugees and displaced persons had been forced to flee their homes due to war, violence, and persecution. 

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted that forced displacement around the world had risen to a record level for the 12th consecutive year, as a result of conflicts and wars in various parts of the world, which were a key driver of mass displacement, as well as poverty and human rights violations.

In its last report, UNHCR stated that, at the end of last year, the number of refugees and forcibly displaced persons around the world was approximately 117.3 million; less than four months after that date, the number had risen to 120 million.

UNHCR stated that the number had risen from 110 million refugees and displaced persons a year earlier, and that over the past 12 years, that number had almost tripled.

Of the world's population, 1.5 percent are now forcibly displaced, almost twice as many as a decade ago, or one in every 125 people.

Reasons for seeking asylum

Wars, occupation, ongoing and emerging conflicts, economic and political conditions, and chaos have led to the displacement of many people throughout the world.

The crises in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the conflict in the Sudan, and widespread poverty in the states of Africa and Asia have led to one of the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crises.

For example, Syria - one of the largest countries in the world in terms of refugee population - was the cause of the crisis that erupted in 2011 as a result of the repressive actions, starvation policy, and systematic shelling by the regime in Damascus against areas where demonstrations against the Government of Damascus have taken place. The Turkish occupying state has also contributed to the displacement of thousands of Syrian people from their towns and villages by sending ISIS/ Daesh mercenaries and Jabhet al-Nusra to several parts of Syria. Then, it occupied several areas, such as Afrin, Girê Spi/ Tal Abyed, and Serêkaniyê/ Ras al-Ain, where those areas were emptied of their residents and mercenaries were settled in their place.

The Turkish occupying state has also transformed the areas it has occupied into mercenary recruitment camps, which have been sent to Libya, Armenia, Iraq and several African States, in implementation of its colonial policies. Credible reports of the transformation of a large part of the Syrian people into mere mercenaries are evidence of this.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

Most people who are forced to flee their homes do not cross international borders, but remain within their own countries, known as internally displaced persons, representing 58 percent of the total number of forcibly displaced persons.

At the end of 2023, 68.3 million people remained internally displaced by conflict and violence. An estimated 9.1 million people were forced into Sudan, the largest number of internally displaced persons ever reported, followed by Syria (7.2 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.7 million).

Solutions

As the refugee crisis escalates and spreads from one continent to another, and as a result of the lack of genuine political will on the part of states claiming to defend the rights of refugees, the solution to this major crisis begins primarily by working to resolve the crisis that has caused migration, namely by stopping wars and interfering in the affairs of other states and by initiating political and economic solutions that contribute to the return of these refugees and displaced persons, not by injecting funds into the countries to which people have fled the horrors of war.

T/ Satt.

ANHA