Refugee Numbers Hit Record High

The number of refugees fleeing conflicts worldwide has increased to a record 59.5 million, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Thursday. Over half of those refugees are children. This figure is up from 37.5 million refugees a decade ago.

Syria became the world’s largest source of refugees last year, with 11.5 million having fled their homes. Europe is struggling to deal with an influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to escape conflict in Syria and Libya.

Last year also saw the lowest number of refugees return home at just 126,800 people. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres explained that the scale of the problem was overwhelming his department. “[M]any areas of the world are today in a completely chaotic situation, and the result is this staggering escalation of displacement, this staggering escalation of human suffering because each displaced person is a tragic story,” Guterres said. “UN agencies, ngos, the Red Cross [and the] Red Crescent Society [no longer] have the capacity and the resources to respond to such a dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the world.”

If all the world’s refugees were placed together as one nation, it would have the 24th largest population in the world.