Nearly 3 million more displaced people in 2020
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the global number of people fleeing wars, conflicts or human rights violations rose to almost 82.4 million last year.
Migrants & Refugees
Migrants, refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers all face challenges away from their home region or country. Refugees flee across a border and need international protection. Migrants choose to find a better future somewhere else. Displaced people are forced or obliged to leave their homes, fleeing to somewhere else within or outside their country. Asylum seekers want international protection; not all are recognized as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker.
Enjoy our Free+ stories and our weekly newsletter
Start your free accessAlready have an account? Log in
U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees reinstated as U.S. aid recipient
The United States pledged to restore aid to the Palestinians, almost two-thirds of it earmarked for UNRWA.
UNHCR warns of full blown crisis in Ethiopia
After warning of "a full-scale humanitarian crisis" in Ethiopia, United Nations officials said 32,000 people fled Tigray region and 200,000 more may follow.
Groups find authorities prey on African migrants
A new report found government officials inflicted almost half the violence suffered by people risking grave dangers to transit through North Africa for Europe.
UNHCR reports 1% of humanity displaced
An unprecedented 79.5 million people, or 1% of the world's population, were recorded as forcibly displaced as of the end of 2019, UNHCR reported.
Virus enters world's largest refugee camps
Officials sounded the alarm after the first COVID-19 infections were detected at the world's largest refugee settlement for Rohingyas in Bangladesh.
U.N. expert: Myanmar atrocities continue
A U.N. human rights investigator urged the world body to "step up its efforts" to protect ethnic and religious minorities from the Myanmar military.
Uprooted 70 million at risk in virus spread
The coronavirus pandemic threatens to disproportionately harm more than 70 million people who have been forcibly displaced by wars and violent crises.
Afghan refugees seek return after 40 years
Afghan refugees appealed to Pakistan and the U.N. for more support at a conference, hoping to return home after four decades of fleeing wars and conflict.
U.N. sees record displacement in Syria war
The Assad regime's Russia-backed offensive against the last rebel-held area of northwestern Syria caused the biggest single displacement in a nine-year war.
UNHCR halts work at Libya migrant center
The U.N. refugee agency said it was suspending operations at a migrant center in the Libyan capital of Tripoli due to safety concerns as violence intensifies.
IOM help to migrant caravan in Guatemala shows growing aid trend
The U.N. migration agency was providing aid and arranging the return home of more than 140 migrants from Honduras.
U.N. panel bolsters climate asylum seekers
Ioane Teitiota lost his case against deportation, but in its ruling the U.N. Human Rights Committee said people fleeing climate change may claim asylum.
U.N. reports on war agonies for Syrian kids
Syria's civil war has stolen the childhoods of 5 million boys and girls including many killed or suffering grave abuses of their rights, U.N. experts said.
Poor nations focus of global refugee forum
Six countries and the U.N. opened the first Global Refugee Forum to help poor nations overwhelmed by taking in people fleeing for safety across borders.
Nobel laureate denies Rohingya genocide
Once an icon of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi went to the International Court of Justice to deny Myanmar's military committed genocide against Rohingyas.