Ukrainians fleeing the war cross the border into Romania by boat on March 25, 2022. ANDREEA ALEXANDRU / AP
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed the number of people displaced from their homes worldwide to more than 100 million for the first time, the United Nations (UN) warned on Monday (May 23).
“The number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights abuses and persecution has passed the staggering 100 million mark for the first time, fueled by the war in Ukraine and other deadly conflicts,” writes the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) into a press release.
“This number of 100 million is striking, worrying and sobering. It should never have been reached, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. This should serve as a wake-up call for us to resolve and prevent destructive conflicts, end persecution, and address the causes that force innocent people to leave their homes. »
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The situation was already serious, according to 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, l Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Then, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine, throwing millions of people onto the streets to flee the fighting and reach less exposed regions or another country.
Scale not seen since World War II
Europe had not experienced such a wave of refugees since the end of the Second World War. Almost 6.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country, mostly women and children, while men of military age have remained in the country. And the UN estimates it could be 8.3 million by the end of the year. In Ukraine itself, an estimated eight million people are internally displaced.
Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in areas under their government’s control. That figure excludes Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the country’s eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
The 100 million uprooted people now listed by UNHCR represent more than 1% of the world’s population, and only thirteen countries in the world have populations larger than that number, the UN agency reminds, to get a better idea to give the extent of the phenomenon.
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“The international community’s reaction to the people fleeing the war in Ukraine has been extremely positive,” said Filippo Grandi. “This wave of compassion is very real and a similar mobilization is necessary in view of all other crises in the world,” he underlined.
But the outpouring of generosity and the mobilization of public aid in the case of Ukraine stand in sharp contrast to the much more mixed reception reserved for refugees from other theaters of war, such as Afghanistan or Syria.