With the increase in the number of refugees worldwide, the Myanmar coup has displaced thousands of people | International News Refugee News

According to UNHCR data, due to violence and persecution, a record 82.4 million people were displaced globally in 2020, of which an estimated 680,000 people were displaced in Myanmar due to ethnic conflict and the recent military coup.

Indrika Ratwatte, head of the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said in Bangkok on Friday that the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) in Myanmar has increased by 200,000 in the past four months since Aung was removed. In February, Shan Su Ji’s civilian government.

Most of the most recent internally displaced persons are from Kayah and Karen states, where ethnic minorities fight armed forces with the military. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced in Shan and Kachin States.

Ratwater said: “This is a very complicated map of internal displacement, and we are very concerned about this situation,” he added, adding that it is vital that the international community provides life-saving assistance to Myanmar refugees.

In 2017, after the military crackdown, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, while more than 100,000 persecuted ethnic minorities remained in camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Latwater spoke at the UNHCR’s annual global trend report on refugees during which he also stated that the number of refugees worldwide has doubled in the past 10 years.

“Sadly, forced displacement is still a global phenomenon, and sadly, the number of people who are forcibly displaced today is increasing,” he said.

According to the report, children account for 42% of all forcibly displaced people in the world, and it is estimated that between 2018 and 2020, nearly 1 million of them were born as refugees.

Closed boundary

More than two-thirds of the world’s people who fled abroad are from only five countries, of which 6.7 million are from Syria, 4 million are from Venezuela, 2.6 million are from Afghanistan, 2.2 million are from South Sudan, and 1.1 million are from Myanmar .

But Ratwater pointed out that due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 37,000 refugees were successfully resettled in third countries in 2020, a record low.

He said: “Many countries close their borders because they are worried about the infection of the vector, which also means that those seeking protection have difficulty entering because the borders are closed.”

“Vulnerability has multiplied,” Latwat added, while emphasizing the plight of the Rohingya, of whom about 200 died last year while trying to cross the sea from Bangladesh to a third country.

According to the report, the record number of refugees in 2020 is 4% higher than the record number of 79.5 million refugees in 2019.

Of the total number of refugees, approximately 20.7 million are under UNHCR supervision, including 5.7 million Palestinians and 3.9 million Venezuelans.

Break: despite #Coronavirus disease, The number of people fleeing war, violence, persecution and human rights violations rose to nearly 82.4 million in 2020https://t.co/MQQOoE1eXM

-UNHCR News (@RefugeesMedia) June 18, 2021

“We need greater political will to resolve the conflicts and persecutions that forced people to flee in the first place,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a separate statement announced.

Grandi emphasized the situation of refugee children in particular, and UNHCR stated that they are becoming more vulnerable, especially as the crisis continues for many years.

Grandi said: “The tragedies of so many children in exile should be enough for them to make greater efforts to prevent and end conflict and violence.”

Hungry and vulnerable to the new coronavirus

At a virtual press conference in Bangkok, Asif Saleh, executive director of the Bangladesh-based development organization BRAC, said that the latest UNHCR report confirmed the grim situation of Rohingya refugees in the country .

Since the last influx in August 2017, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees have been registered with the UN refugee agency in Bangladesh. However, given that some of them have not yet been registered or arrived in an earlier wave of large-scale immigration, their actual numbers may be much higher.

“This is a group of people living in 34 extremely crowded refugee camps, crowded in an area with an average population density of about 40,000 people per square kilometer,” Saleh said.

Given the density of the population, Rohingya refugees have become more susceptible to the COVID pandemic, which, like most countries, has already hit Bangladesh.

Saleh said that so far, the Dhaka government has controlled the spread of the disease in the country and refugee camps, but the situation is still “unpredictable” as the COVID vaccine is still in short supply.

Fire broke out in Rohingya refugee camp In recent months, the already tragic situation of refugees has been further affected, with approximately 10,000 shelters destroyed and 60,000 homeless.

Saleh added: “This is the last thing they need at a time when the shelter is essential to protect them from the upcoming monsoon season” and during the pandemic.

Increased violence

UNHCR stated that although people continue to flee across borders, millions of people are still displaced in their own countries.

In Afghanistan, Nader Nadery, a member of the government’s peace negotiating team, said that armed violence is still the driving force of the refugee crisis in the country.

“Unfortunately, this will not end soon,” Nardelli said, predicting that the factors driving the refugee crisis will continue to exist.

He said that since the United States announced the withdrawal of coalition forces, the violence has intensified, and the Taliban and other armed groups have intensified their attacks on towns and villages. There has also been an increase in targeted killings of certain social classes and ethnic groups (such as Hazaras).

Nadery said that the drought has affected several areas of Afghanistan and has also led to displacement and the continued spread of COVID-19. So far, there have been more than 96,000 COVID cases and at least 3,800 deaths in the country.

Worldwide, the number of internally displaced persons increased by more than 2.3 million last year, including in Afghanistan, as well as Ethiopia, Sudan, Sahel countries, Mozambique, Yemen and Colombia.

The UN refugee agency said that last year was the ninth consecutive increase in forced displacement globally.

“The solution requires global leaders and influential people to put aside their differences, end selfish political attitudes, and focus instead on preventing and resolving conflicts and ensuring respect for human rights,” Grandi said.