UNHCR Says More Than 100 Million People Displaced for the First Time

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(Photo: NPR)

The United Nations' primary refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), announced a tragic, "staggering milestone" on Sunday, 22 May, saying that world has more than 100 million refugees for the first time.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said that "one hundred million is a stark figure – sobering and alarming in equal measure."

"The international response to people fleeing war in Ukraine has been overwhelmingly positive. Compassion is alive and we need similar mobilisation for all crises around the world. But ultimately humanitarian aid is a palliative, not a cure. To reverse this trend the only answer is peace and stability so that innocent people are not forced to gamble between acute danger at home or precarious flight or exile."

Filippo Grandi, UN high commissioner for refugees

The world's largest refugee population continues to be from Syria.

The second largest group of refugees is from Venezuela and Afghans made up the third largest.

The top three countries hosting the largest number of refugees are Turkey with 3,696,800, Colombia with 1,743,900 and Uganda with 1,475,300.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and other conflicts around the world, like in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Congo, have triggered a huge refugee crisis in the past few months.

(With inputs from UN News.)