More than 71 mn people internally displaced worldwide in 2022
"This perfect storm has undermined years of progress made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition."
Issued on: 11/05/2023 -
A full 60.9 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2022 including in Sudan
© - / AFP/File
Geneva (AFP) – A "perfect storm" of overlapping crises forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, sending the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said on Thursday.
An unprecedented 71.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2022 -- up 20 percent from a year earlier -- amid mass displacement for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as by the monsoon floods that drenched Pakistan.
A full 60.9 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2022, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
That marks an all-time high for new internal displacements, and an increase of 60 percent compared to the some 38 million fresh displacements seen in 2021.
That number is "extremely high", IDMC chief Alexandra Bilak told AFP.
"Much of the increase is caused, of course, by the war in Ukraine, but also by floods in Pakistan, by new and ongoing conflicts across the world, and by a number of sudden and slow onset disasters that we've seen from the Americas all the way to the Pacific."
'Very volatile'
Last year, new internal displacements from conflict surged to 28.3 million -- nearly doubling from a year earlier and three times higher than the annual average over the past decade.
Beyond the 17 million displacements inside Ukraine last year, eight million were forced from their homes by Pakistan's monster floods.
Sub-Saharan Africa saw around 16.5 million displacements -- more than half of them due to conflict, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Ethiopia.
The global internal displacement figures are only expected to grow this year, driven in part by fresh conflicts like the violence ravaging Sudan forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.
More than 700,000 people have already become internally displaced by the fighting that erupted on April 15, while another 150,000 people have fled the country, according to UN numbers.
"Since the start of the... most recent conflict in April, we've already recorded the same number of displacements as we did for the whole year in 2022," Bilak said.
"Clearly, it's a very volatile situation on the ground," she said, pointing out that those being newly displaced by the fighting were joining the ranks of more than three million people already displaced across Sudan.
'Food security crisis'
While internal displacement is a global phenomenon, nearly three quarters of the world's IDPs live in just 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.
Many of them remain displaced due to unresolved conflicts that have dragged on for years and continued to force people to flee their homes last year.
And even as conflict-related displacement surged, natural disasters continued to account for most new internal displacement, spurring 32.6 million such movements in 2022 -- up 40 percent from a year earlier.
NRC chief Jan Egeland described the overlapping crises spurring ever more displacement around the world as a "perfect storm".
"Conflict and disasters combined last year to aggravate people's pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before," he said in a statement.
"The war in Ukraine also fuelled a global food security crisis that hit the internally displaced hardest," he said.
"This perfect storm has undermined years of progress made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition."
© 2023 AFP
Archbishop of Canterbury: UK migration bill is morally wrong
By SYLVIA HUI
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby stands at the entrance of Westminster Abbey The head of the Church of England on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, condemned a British government bill that would dramatically curb migrants’ ability to seek asylum in the U.K., calling the policy “isolationist, morally unacceptable and politically impractical.” (Andrew Milligan/Pool via AP, File)
LONDON (AP) — The head of the Church of England on Wednesday condemned a British government bill that would dramatically curb migrants’ ability to seek asylum in the U.K., calling the policy “isolationist, morally unacceptable and politically impractical.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made a rare intervention in Parliament to oppose the legislation. He told the House of Lords, Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, that the government’s proposal was a “short-term fix” that risked causing great damage to the U.K.’s reputation.
The legislation bars asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and compels officials to detain and then deport refugees and migrants “to their home country or a safe third country,” such as Rwanda. Once deported, they would be banned from ever re-entering the U.K.
Britain’s Conservative government says the measure would deter tens of thousands of people from trying to cross the English Channel in small boats each year in hopes of reaching the U.K. But critics, including the United Nations’ refugee agency, have described the legislation as unethical and unworkable, and some allege it would violate international law.
The bill passed the House of Commons last month. It was on a second reading Wednesday in the House of Lords, where it faces strong opposition. The Lords can amend the legislation but not block it.
Welby, who is also the spiritual head of Anglican churches worldwide and presided over King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday, said international protections for refugees were “not inconvenient obstructions to get ’round by any legislative means necessary.”
He added that it was wrong for the U.K. to leave the responsibility of accommodating refugees up to other countries, often much poorer ones.
“Of course we cannot take everyone and nor should we, but this bill has no sense at all of the long-term and the global nature of the challenge that the world faces,” Welby said. “This nation should lead internationally, not stand apart.”
Britain’s government has urged the House of Lords to back the bill, which it says “is designed to meet the will of the British people.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” carrying asylum-seekers across the English Channel and made that one of the key focuses of his time in office. His government has argued that the bill will clamp down on criminals who exploit desperate asylum-seekers and prevent migrants from dying during dangerous voyages from northern France in small dinghies.
“There is nothing compassionate about allowing vulnerable people to perish in the Channel,” Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said. The government will “robustly defend” its migration bill, he added.
While Britain takes in fewer migrants than other European countries such as Germany and Italy, the number of people crossing the busy waterway in search of better lives in the U.K. has increased significantly in recent years.
More than 45,000 people, including many fleeing countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, arrived in Britain in small boats last year, up from 8,500 in 2020.
The government has housed many of those awaiting asylum decisions in hotels, which officials say costs taxpayers millions of pounds (dollars) a day. Authorities have said they plan to place new arrivals in disused military camps and a barge docked on the southern English coast.
Welby has been outspoken about his opposition to the Conservative government’s efforts to curb migration. Last year, he warned against official rhetoric that portrayed migrants as “invaders.” He also called a government plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda “the opposite of the nature of God.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Germany's Scholz approves tougher measures to tackle migration
NEWS WIRES
Wed, 10 May 2023
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the heads of Germany's 16 states on Wednesday agreed on new measures to tackle soaring migration after crunch talks.
In the first four months of 2023, some 101,981 asylum applications were filed in Germany, an increase of 78 percent from the same period in 2022.
Almost 218,000 applications were filed in Germany last year, the highest number since 2015-16, with the largest number of newcomers hailing from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, followed by Turkey and Iraq.
In addition, more than a million people arrived from Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion of the country.
In Wednesday's agreement, a modernisation of IT systems is due to help accelerate the processing of asylum applications, which currently takes 26 months on average, potentially speeding up the expulsions of those with unsuccessful bids.
An extension of the maximum detention period for migrants from 10 to 28 days was agreed to make it easier to order and maintain their detention before a possible expulsion.
Germany will also aim to reach "new migrant partnerships" with the countries of origin of the new arrivals, Scholz told a press conference.
Scholz said the agreements would facilitate the arrival of "qualified staff" from the relevant nations in exchange for deals allowing the return of irregular migrants.
The federal government and the regions opted against implementing permanent border checks with neighbouring countries, but refused to rule it out.
Currently, Germany only applies fixed controls to everyone passing through along its border with Austria.
(AFP)
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