The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) released a new report today detailing that 2016 has been the worst year for displaced people worldwide since the organization started keeping track. This report was released the day before World Refugee day, which is June 20th.
The numbers behind the UNHCR's report on who is getting displaced
For all of 2016, the UNHCR reported that a total of 65.6 million people worldwide had been displaced from their homes during the year. That number is 300,000 people higher than in 2015 and is six million people more than it was in 2014.
The numbers in the report also showed that out of the 65.6 million, 10.3 million had fled from their homes just in 2016. Out of that 10.3 million, a total of 3.4 million had crossed international borders to become refugees. As the organization pointed out, this equals one person being displaced every three seconds.
The report also found that most people who are forced to flee their homes do so within their own country. These people are classified as internally displaced people. There were slightly less internally displaced people in 2016, around 40.3 million, compared to 2015, which had 40.8 million. A total of 22.5 million people, half of whom were children, registered as refugees in 2016. This is the highest number since the UNHCR started their yearly reports.
Syria and the refugee crisis
Syria's now six-year-old civil war has sent a total of 5.5 million people to other countries to escape the conflict, thus becoming refugees. In 2016, 825,000 people from Syria became refugees. This once again made the country the world's largest producer of refugees. Inside Syria, 6.3 million people are internally displaced people since the start of the Syrian Civil War.
According to the report, almost two-thirds (66 percent) of Syria's population have been displaced since the start of the war. The war has also killed more than 320,000 people.
South Sudan's crisis is growing at the world's fastest rate
Since the South Sudanese Civil War started in December 2013, it has forced a total of 3.7 million people from their homes.
This is almost one-third (33 percent) of the country's population, on top of that, the war has killed tens of thousands of people. The refugee population from South Sudan grew by 85 percent in 2016 and reached a total of 1.4 million people. The chief of the UNHCR stated that South Sudan was the center of the world's "fastest growing refugee crisis."
