UN: Record 71 million people have been displaced by war, violence

The United Nations agency for refugees said Wednesday that, as of the end of 2018, a record 70.8 million people were considered “forcibly displaced” from their homes due to war, state persecution and other violence.

“We must … redouble our solidarity with the many thousands of innocent people who are forced to flee their homes each day,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in his agency’s annual report.

{mosads}“We are also seeing unprecedented engagement by new actors including development actors, private businesses, and individuals, which not only reflects but also delivers the spirit of the Global Compact on Refugees,” Grandi continued, adding: “We must build on these positive examples and redouble our solidarity with the many thousands of innocent people who are forced to flee their homes each day.”

The U.N estimates that 13.6 million people were newly displaced from their homes last year, which the report noted was equivalent to the total population of Tokyo.

The report counted 25.9 million Palestinian refugees under the protection of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Also noted by the report was the displacement of roughly 4 million Venezuelans from their homes in 2018 due to the ongoing unrest in the country caused by a power struggle between Juan Guaidó, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, and President Nicolás Maduro.

Guaidó maintains support from the Trump administration and some European countries, but Maduro continues to control most of the country’s military and police forces and is recognized as the rightful ruler by a handful of countries.

Many Venezuelans have applied for asylum in neighboring Peru, according to the U.N.’s website, which reports that Peru has accepted 800,000 migrants from the country. 

“People are arriving in a more and more vulnerable situation,” Federico Agusti, the U.N. refugee commission’s representative in Peru, said in a statement. “Some have been walking for 30 or 40 days through various countries in the region. We see people suffering from malnutrition or dehydration and people with medical problems. There are more and more families with children.”