Johannesburg: The global forced displacement rose sharply in 2015 reaching the highest level ever, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report released in Pretoria on Monday.
Conflict and persecution are the main causes of the upsurge trend, according to the annual Global Trends report which tracks forced displacement worldwide based on data from governments, partners and the organisation's own reporting.
The total of 65.3 million comprises 3.2 million people in industrialised countries who as of the end 2015 were awaiting decisions on asylum; 21.3 million refugees worldwide representing the highest level since the early 1990s; 40.8 million people who had been forced to flee their homes but were within the confines of their own countries - an increase of 2.6 million from 2014 and the highest number on record.
"At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Politics is gravitating against asylum in some countries. The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what's being tested today, and it's this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
Three countries -- Syria (4.9 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) -- produce half the world's refugees.
These three countries together accounted for more than half the refugees under UNHCR's mandate worldwide, said the report.
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