World at War: One in Every 122 Humans is a Refugee

One in every 122 humans is a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum  —UNHCR

Record numbers of  people are forced to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere amid wars, conflict and persecution, said a new report from the UN refugee agency.

UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report: World at War, released on Thursday (June 18), said that worldwide displacement in 2014 was at the highest level ever recorded.

An astounding 59.5 million people, a population the size of Canada and Australia combined, were forcibly displaced at the end of 2014, compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million ten years ago.

“We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“It is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace.”

The numbers of refugees and internally displaced people are rising in every region of the world. Since 2010, “at least 15 conflicts have erupted or reignited: eight in Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, northeastern Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and this year in Burundi); three in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, and Yemen); one in Europe (Ukraine) and three in Asia (Kyrgyzstan, and in several areas of Myanmar and Pakistan).”

“Few of these crises have been resolved and most still generate new displacement,” the report said, adding that in 2014 only 126,800 refugees were able to return to their home countries—the lowest number in 31 years.

Children comprise half of all refugees

More than half the world’s refugees and IDP are children, according to the UN report.

In 2014, about 13.9 million people became newly displaced—four times the number of the previous year, according to the Global Trends report. “Worldwide there were 19.5 million refugees (up from 16.7 million in 2013), 38.2 million were displaced inside their own countries (up from 33.3 million in 2013), and 1.8 million people were awaiting the outcome of claims for asylum (against 1.2 million in 2013).”

Worldwide Refugees and IDP

Asia

The number of refugees and internally displaced people in Asia grew by 31 per cent in 2014 to 9 million. “Continuing displacement was also seen in and from Myanmar in 2014, including of Rohingya from Rakhine state and in the Kachin and Northern Shan regions. Iran and Pakistan remained two of the world’s top four refugee hosting countries.”

Europe

Forced displacement numbers in Europe rose to 6.7 million last year, compared to 4.4 million at the end of 2013, with the largest proportion of this being Syrians in Turkey, Ukrainians in the Russian Federation, and a record 219,000 Mediterranean crossings…

Middle East and North Africa

Syria’s ongoing war, with a total of 11.5  million displaced people [7.6 million IDP and  3.88 million refugees at the end of 2014,] was the world’s largest producer and host of forced displacement last year. The regional total grew further with new displacement of least 2.6 million people in Iraq and 309,000 newly displaced in Libya. Afghanistan had 2.59 million refugees.

Sub-Saharan Africa

“Africa’s numerous conflicts, including in Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia (1.1 million), Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, together produced immense forced displacement totals in 2014, on a scale only marginally lower than in the Middle East.”

Sub-Saharan Africa had 3.7 million refugees and 11.4 million IDP, 4.5 million of whom were newly displaced in 2014. The 17 per cent overall increase excludes Nigeria.

Americas

A rise in forced displacement also occurred in the Americas, said the report. Colombia had one of the world’s largest IDP at 6 million, with 137,000 Colombians being newly displaced in 2014. “With more people fleeing gang violence or other forms of persecution in Central America, the United States saw 36,800 more asylum claims than in 2013, representing growth of 44 percent.”

The Global Trends report is available at http://unhcr.org/556725e69.html.

A Third of World’s Major Aquifers Rapidly Depleting: Report

Groundwater basins likely far smaller than previously thought: Researchers

Some of the world’s largest groundwater basins are rapidly depleting due to excessive human consumption, according to two new studies led by UC Irvine.

Researchers say they they don’t know exactly how much more water remains in the basins.

The findings are significant because humans are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out, the researchers say.

“Available physical and chemical measurements are simply insufficient,” said UCI principal researcher. “Given how quickly we are consuming the world’s groundwater reserves, we need a coordinated global effort to determine how much is left.”

Researchers classified eight of the planet’s 37 largest aquifers as “overstressed,” with almost “no natural replenishment to offset usage,” and five others as “extremely or highly stressed.”

Unsurprisingly, the most stressed aquifers are in the world’s driest areas, which depend greatly on underground water. “Climate change and population growth are expected to intensify the problem.”

“What happens when a highly stressed aquifer is located in a region with socioeconomic or political tensions that can’t supplement declining water supplies fast enough?” asks the lead author on both studies. “We’re trying to raise red flags now to pinpoint where active management today could protect future lives and livelihoods.”

Researchers found that the Arabian Aquifer System, on which more than 60 million people depend, is the most overstressed reserve in the world.

The second-most overstressed reserve is the Indus Basin aquifer in NW India and Pakistan, with the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa in third position. California’s Central Valley is also classified as “highly stressed.”

“As we’re seeing in California right now, we rely much more heavily on groundwater during drought,” said the principal researcher.

“We don’t actually know how much is stored in each of these aquifers.” The lead author said. “In a water-scarce society, we can no longer tolerate this level of uncertainty, especially since groundwater is disappearing so rapidly.”

[Globally, about 2.2 billion people rely on groundwater as the primary source of freshwater. Estimate is based on FIRE-EARTH Models.]

The report is posted at Water Resources Research