The number of people forcibly displaced globally surged to 103 million in the first half 2022, according to the latest data from the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR.

The UNHCR’s ‘2022 Mid-Year Trends’ report looks at numbers and cohorts of people forced from their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public.

The number of 103 million amounts to one in every 77 people on Earth and represents an increase of 13.6 million or 15 per cent compared to the end of 2021.

And, if displaced people were a nation, it would be larger than Germany, France or the UK.

This is an increase of 13.6 million, or 15 per cent, compared to the end of 2021, and more than double the proportion of a decade ago.

According to the report, the total number of refugees and people in need of international protection worldwide rose by 24 per cent from 25.7 million at the end of 2021 to 32 million by mid-2022.

At the end of June this year, more than half (56 per cent) of all refugees were Syrian, Venezuelan or Ukrainian, the report says.

In mid-2022, the report showed, Turkey hosted 3.7 million refugees, the largest refugee population worldwide. Colombia was second with 2.5 million and Germany third with 2.2 million refugees, followed by Pakistan and Uganda (1.5 million each).

The UNHCR report also said that the number of asylum-seekers waiting for a decision had climbed to 4.9 million by mid-2022 from 4.6 million at the end of 2021.

In the first half of this year, more than 9.6 million new displacements due to conflict, persecution and violence were reported. The vast majority were in Ukraine, which accounted for 74 per cent of all new internal displacements.

Over the same period, significant displacements of people were also reported in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, as well as in Myanmar, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Congo.

The report says the Russian invasion of Ukraine created the fastest and one of the largest displacements of people since the Second World War.

“In the initial days of the war, more than 200,000 refugees a day crossed into neighbouring countries. By mid-2022, 5.4 million refugees had fled the country, while a further 6.3 million people remained displaced within Ukraine,” the report said.

“For most refugees, returning to their home country in safety and dignity based on a free and informed choice would be a preferred solution to bring their temporary status as refugees to an end,” the report said.

“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, movement restrictions hindered returns home, resettlement to third countries and naturalization of refugees in their countries of asylum,” it said.

“Based on statistics from the first six months of 2022, the impact of the pandemic has greatly diminished. The period saw 162,300 refugees return home to 27 countries of origin from 47 different countries of asylum, while 1.3 million internally displaced people returned to their areas of origin.”

Over half of all refugee returns were to South Sudan, primarily from Uganda, with significant numbers of refugees from Syria and Côte d’Ivoire also returning home.

Also, 42,300 refugees from 73 countries were resettled in the first six months of 2022, a substantial increase compared to the COVID-19 era figures from the same periods of 2021 (16,300) and 2020 (17,400).

See the full report here: UNHCR – Mid-Year Trends