Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed the number of people forced from their homes worldwide above the 100 million mark for the first time, the United Nations warned on Monday (23 May). “The number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights abuses and persecution has passed the dizzying 100 million mark for the first time, driven by the war in Ukraine and other deadly conflicts »writes the High Commissioner for Refugees in a press release.
“The 100 million figure is startling, worrying and sobering. This is a number that should never have been reachedsaid the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. This should serve as a wake-up call for us to resolve and prevent destructive conflict, end persecution and address the root causes that force innocent people to flee their homes. »
The situation was already serious, as revealed by UNHCR statistics. By the end of 2021, the number of uprooted people worldwide had reached 90 million, due to new waves of violence or protracted conflicts in countries such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine, throwing new millions of people on the roads to flee the fighting and reach less exposed regions or another country.
An unprecedented scale since the Second World War
Europe had not seen such a rapid influx of refugees since the end of the Second World War. Almost 6.5 million Ukrainians have left the country, mostly women and children, with men of fighting age expected to stay in the country. And the UN estimates that they could be 8.3 million by the end of the year. In Ukraine itself, it is estimated that around 8 million people are internally displaced.
Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine had 37 million people in the areas under its government’s control. This figure excludes Crimea, annexed in 2014 by Russia, and the eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists. These 100 million uprooted people represent more than 1% of the world’s population, and only 13 countries in the world have a population greater than this number, recalls the UNHCR, to give a better idea of the extent of the phenomenon.
“The response of the international community to people fleeing the war in Ukraine has been overwhelmingly positive”rejoiced Filippo Grandi. “This surge of compassion is very real and a similar mobilization is necessary with regard to all the other crises in the world”, he pointed out. But the outpouring of generosity and the mobilization of public aid for Ukraine contrasts sharply with the much more mixed reception reserved for refugees from other theaters of war such as Afghanistan or Syria.