World Refugee Day: the challenges facing UNHCR as 100 million forced to flee homes in the last decade

On this World Refugee Day, the UNHCR reports that, by the end of 2019, an unprecedented 79.5 million people had been displaced. This is the highest total reported by the agency since its inception in 1950. More than 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes in the past decade, and while the 1990s saw around 1.5 million returning each year, that number has now fallen to 385,000. The continued lack of political will or the desire to explore long-term resolutions guarantees that the prospect of return for displaced people will remain low. The Syrian refugee crisis is now in its tenth year and displacement in Afghanistan is in its fifth decade. Download the new Independent Premium...