This past World Refugee Day marked the ninth consecutive year-on-year increase of forcibly displaced people, with the 2020 Global Trends in Forced Displacement reporting 82.4 million people forcibly displaced worldwide due to “persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order.”
This now constitutes displacement of over one percent of the global population. That is 1 in 95 people displaced in 2020, as compared to 1 in 159 people in 2010.
Of significance are what UNHCR indicated as the drivers of forced displacement: “Climate change is driving displacement and increasing the vulnerability of those already forced to flee. Forcibly displaced and stateless people are on the front lines of the climate emergency. Many are living in climate “hotspots” where they typically lack the resources to adapt to an increasingly inhospitable environment. The dynamics of poverty, food insecurity, climate change, conflict and displacement are increasingly interconnected and mutually reinforcing, driving more and more people to search for safety and security.”
More than two thirds of all refugees stem from Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. Additionally, some 41 percent of people displaced across borders were children. One million children were born in exile this past year.
Al Jazeera, published infographics to help visualize refugee journeys and data over the last 70 years, specifically situating the numbers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Developing countries continue to host the vast majority of refugees, this year marking 86%, with 6.7 million refugees in Least Developed Countries.
Image courtesy of Al Jazeera - click image for more
Human rights and aid organizations leaders from around the globe are pointing to the report as evidence that there are clear pitfalls in leadership and governing policy enforcement. As Amali Tower, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees pointed out:
“82.4 million people are forcibly displaced due to climate, conflict and persecution, a four percent increase during the Covid-19 pandemic, yet 160 States closed their borders, 99 making no exceptions whatsoever for international protection. This meant many who ought to have been protected were expelled, facing harsher restrictions in global lockdowns.”
The Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRCS), Jan Egeland, called the displacement figures “an epic failure of humanity.” He continued, “the majority of people fleeing today are on the move because of manmade conflicts. What is lacking is the political will and leadership to end these wars.”
Bill Frelick, the Director, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch pointed to the report as a strong message that there needs to be more accountability to the Refugee Convention. He called for additional countries to sign on to the Convention, as well as an enforcement of the rules for those who had previously thwarted the Convention’s conditions, specifically in relation to non-refoulement, the prohibition against forcible return of persons to situations of harm.
The record-setting numbers affirm that despite many countries closing their borders to refugees in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, without direct, immediate action from the international community to establish peace and mitigate climate change, the number of people displaced will continue to increase annually. The UNHCR warns that “forecasts for 2021 are equally worrying, with some of the world’s worst food crises – including in displacement-affected countries such as South Sudan, Syria and the Central African Republic – at risk of turning into famine.”
Equally, the World Bank expects the Covid-19 pandemic to push a further 119 to 124 million people into extreme poverty. While conflict and violence decreased overall in 2020, in almost half of the world, it increased. With vaccine distributions now accelerating across the globe and public health restrictions lifting, projections are that global conflict will elevate once again in 2021.
To this scene we must add the landscape of the climate crisis where climate change events now internally displace people three times more than conflict. CO2 levels hit record numbers in 2020, hitting 417 parts per million in May. The past decade was the hottest on record. 2020 was 1.2 degrees Celsius hotter than the average year in the 19th Century. June 2020 marked the hottest temperature on record in the Arctic at 38 degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit in eastern Siberia.
Permafrost in the northern hemisphere is warming rapidly. When that record air temperature in the Arctic was felt, land temperatures hit their own record of 45 degrees (113F). Permafrost is the ground that usually remains frozen year-round for two or more years. Thawing permafrost damages existing infrastructure and destroys the livelihoods of indigenous communities.
In the past 30 years, the world has lost 178 million hectares of forest (690,000 square miles). While deforestation has slowed, it isn’t enough to help the rapid rate of global warming.
And with promised global climate finance from rich industrialized nations woefully under-funded yet again, climate adaptation funded at only five percent in the places where it is needed the most, and borders and migration policies continuously short-sighted to causes and protection, a systemic change is ever more vital this COP 26 in Glasgow. (Common Dreams, BBC)
Amali Tower contributed to this article