Internally displaced people at a camp in Mazar-e-Sharif Afghanistan (UNICEF)

The number of individuals forced to abandon their homes to escape wars, violence, human rights violations, and persecution has surpassed 100 million, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with conflicts throughout the world exacerbating the crisis.

See this: Forced Displacement in 2021

According to UNHCR estimates, the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes reached 90 million by the end of 2021 as a result of new waves of violence or ongoing hostilities in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The war in Ukraine has also driven 14 million people to evacuate their homes in the last three months, with six million having to seek refuge abroad and eight million internally displaced.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called the number a "stark figure", adding that it is "sobering and alarming in equal measure. It’s a record that should never have been set. This must serve as a wake-up call to resolve and prevent destructive conflicts, end persecution, and address the underlying causes that force innocent people to flee their homes."

The total number of displaced individuals currently surpasses 1% of the worldwide population, according to the UN, and is similar to the population of Egypt, the world's 14th most populated country. Over half of the forcibly displaced are people relocated within their own nations, with 46.8 million refugees and asylum seekers.

Addressing the growing number of forcibly displaced individuals demands compassion on the part of recipient countries, according to Grandi, who emphasizes that humanitarian aid is a "palliative," not a permanent solution to the refugee situation. He stated that the only possible answer is to restore peace and security "so that innocent people are not forced to gamble between acute danger at home or precarious flight and exile."