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		</div><p>A record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide as a result of war, persecution and other violence, the UN refugee agency said.</p>
<p>This is an increase of more than two million on last year, and an overall total that would amount to the world&#8217;s 20th most populous country.</p>
<p>The annual Global Trends report released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) counted the number of the world&#8217;s refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people at the end of 2018 &#8211; in some cases following decades of living away from home.</p>
<p>The figures, coming on the eve of World Refugee Day on Thursday, are bound to add fuel to a debate at the intersection of international law, human rights and domestic politics &#8211; especially the movement in some countries, including the US, against immigrants and refugees.</p>
<p>Launching the report, the high commissioner, Filippo Grandi, had a message for US president Donald Trump and other world leaders, calling it &#8220;damaging&#8221; to depict migrants and refugees as threats to jobs and security in host countries.</p>
<p>He said that often, these people are fleeing insecurity and danger.</p>
<p>The report puts a statistical framework onto poignant individual stories of people struggling to survive by crossing rivers, deserts, seas, fences and other barriers, both natural and man-made, in order to escape government oppression, gang killings, sexual abuse, militia murders and other violence at home.</p>
<p>The UNHCR said 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of last year, up from about 68.5 million in 2017 &#8211; and nearly a 65% increase on a decade ago.</p>
<p>Among them, nearly three in five people &#8211; more than 41 million people &#8211; have been displaced within their home countries.</p>
<p>Mr Grandi told reporters in Geneva: <em>&#8220;The global trends, once again unfortunately, go in what I would say is the wrong direction.</em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;There are new conflicts, new situations, producing refugees, adding themselves to the old ones. The old ones never get resolved.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>The phenomenon is growing in size and duration.</p>
<p>Some four-fifths of the &#8220;displacement situations&#8221; have lasted more than five years.</p>
<p>After eight years of war in Syria, for instance, its people continue to make up the largest population of forcibly displaced people, at some 13 million.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Over 50% of all refugees are children.<br />ð§ð¾ð¶ð»ð§ð½ð§ð»ð©ð¾ð¶ð¼ð¦ð¿ð§ð»ð¶ð¾ð§ð¿ð¦ð½ð§ð¿ð§ð¾ð±ð¼♀ï¸ð¦ð¾ð§ð½ <a href="https://t.co/o5jcP3HqEM">pic.twitter.com/o5jcP3HqEM</a></p>
<p>&mdash; UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Refugees/status/1141269890713759744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Amid runaway inflation and political turmoil at home, Venezuelans for the first time accounted for the largest number of new asylum-seekers in 2018, with more than 340,000 &#8211; or more than one in five worldwide last year.</p>
<p>Asylum-seekers receive international protection as they await acceptance or rejection of their requests for refugee status.</p>
<p>The UNHCR said that its figures are &#8220;conservative&#8221; and that Venezuela masks a potentially longer-term trend.</p>
<p>Some four million people are known to have left the South American country in recent years.</p>
<p><strong>Read:</strong> <a href="http://londonglossy.com/hong-kong-officials-grilled-over-police-brutality-at-extradition-bill-protest/">Hong Kong officials grilled over police brutality at extradition bill protest</a></p>
<p>Many of those have travelled freely to Peru, Colombia and Brazil, but only about one-eighth have sought formal international protection.</p>
<p>The outflow continues, suggesting that strain on the welcoming countries could worsen.</p>
<p>Mr Grandi predicted a continued &#8220;exodus&#8221; from Venezuela and appealed for donors to provide more development assistance to the region.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tens of millions of people have been forced to flee their homes. This is where they come from. <a href="https://t.co/2WNUbYGvd3">pic.twitter.com/2WNUbYGvd3</a></p>
<p>&mdash; UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Refugees/status/1141209240637284352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The United States, meanwhile, remains the &#8220;largest supporter of refugees&#8221; in the world, Mr Grandi said, with the US the biggest single donor to UNHCR.</p>
<p>He also credited local communities and advocacy groups in America for helping refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.</p>
<p>But the refugee agency chief noted long-term administrative shortcomings which have given the US the world&#8217;s biggest backlog of asylum claims, at nearly 719,000. More than a quarter-million claims were added last year.</p>
<p>He also spoke out against recent rhetoric which has been hostile to migrants and refugees.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;In America, just like in Europe actually and in other parts of the world, what we are witnessing is an identification of refugees &#8211; but not just refugees, migrants as well &#8211; with people that come take away jobs that threaten our security, our values,&#8221;</em> Mr Grandi said.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;And I want to say to the US administration &#8211; to the president &#8211; but also to the leaders around the world: This is damaging.&#8221;</em></p>
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